Three projects to connect 101 underprivileged areas in rural South Khorasan to the national gas grid have been completed, said the managing director of South Khorasan Gas Company.
"The schemes, including 290 kilometers of gas pipeline, cost $6.6 million and supply fuel to 6,000 plus households in deprived areas," Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi was quoted as saying by IRNA on Sunday.
Giving a breakdown, Hashemi said the first venture, Sarbisheh-Nehbandan gas pipeline, was built with the help of the National Iranian Gas Company.
"The pipeline, 127 km long and 12 inches in diameter, was laid in less than a year in the province," he said, noting that now there is no need to supply compressed natural gas to the area.
Referring to the second project, he said that the 33km pipeline links Shusef, a remote town on the southern tip of the province, to the national gas network.
According to the official, besides the pipeline, two gas pressure reducing stations and cathodic protection systems for underground pipes were installed to control corrosion.
Asked about the last venture, he noted that 5,000 households in Nehbandan country in the province are now connected to the grid.
Hashemi noted that laying the 130 Km pipeline plus five gas pressure reducing stations took two years.
The ceremony to inaugurate the projects was attended by Hamidreza Araqi, managing director of NIGC, Hassan Montazer Torbati, the head of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company and South Khorasan Governor Mohammad Mehdi Moravej al-Shari’eh.
According to Araqi, 9 cities and 670 villages in the province have joined the grid since March and work is underway to connect 285 more villages to the national network.
Over 3,600 villages across the country will join the grid by the end of the current fiscal next March.
According to the official, 26,000 villages, constituting 73.6% of the country's rural areas, have joined the national grid since 2014.
The move is in line with the government's declared goal of linking all urban areas and 90% of suburban population to the gas network by 2020.
Over 1,117 cities, accounting for 97% of the urban regions, have access to piped gas.
According to NIGC data, more than 22 million households in 1,106 cities and 24,260 towns are linked to the regularly expanding gas grid.
