Sections of Tehran-Karaj Freeway Project Inaugurated

Sections 2 and 3 of a 14.6-kilometer-long freeway connecting the capital city Tehran to Karaj, the capital of Alborz Province, were inaugurated on Tuesday.
The ceremony was attended by President Hassan Rouhani, Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami, Alborz Governor General Azizollah Shahbazi and CEO of Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructure Company Kheirollah Khademi.
The Hemmat-Karaj Freeway (Hemmat is the name of a major expressway in Tehran), the construction of which has so far cost more than $40 million, is designed in four sections from west Tehran to Karaj.
Once completed, the freeway is expected to attract 30% of the current traffic between Tehran and Karaj, the news portal of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development reported.
Some 85% of the inaugurated sections pass though mountainous and 10% through rolling terrains. A total of 12 million cubic meters of earthwork has been carried out on these sections without explosion due to the freeway’s proximity to residential, commercial and tourist sites.
Khademi said during the inaugural ceremony that there are, at present, a total of 2,400 kilometers of freeways connecting the Iranian cities and provinces and around 1,162 more kilometers are under construction.
“By the end of the fiscal 2021-22, which is the last year of President Rouhani’s second term in office, four other freeway projects, stretching over a total of 582 kilometers, will come on stream. These are southern peripheral freeway of Tehran [120 km], eastern peripheral freeway of Isfahan [63 km], Isfahan-Shiraz freeway [225 km], which will be Iran's longest freeway, and Arak-Khorramabad Freeway [67 km],” Fars News Agency quoted him as saying.
Khademi noted that overall, these projects have had a 70-78% progress.