East Azarbaijan Province’s Bureau of Economic Affairs and Finance has issued a permit for $1.25 billion foreign investment in the construction of a freeway between East and West Azarbaijan provinces.
Turkish company of Bergiz Insaat has offered to invest in the construction of the route, which covers 253 kilometers to connect the cities of Tabriz and Marand in East Azarbaijan to West Azarbaijan’s city of Bazargan near the Turkish border, IRNA reported.
According to a legislation passed on June 21 under Article 6 of the Constitution’s Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection law, the bureau allows Bergiz Insaat to sign a contract with Iran’s Ministry of Roads and Urban Development for joint construction of the freeway.
The joint implementation of the project follows an instruction issued by President Hassan Rouhani during his visit to East Azarbaijan in mid May.
The Turkish company is to implement 65 percent of the project and the rest will be constructed by the Iranian government.
The freeway, which will be constructed in four phases, is estimated to need $2-billion (58,000 billion rials) investment within five years.
Bazargan border crossing is a major route through which Iran and Turkey trade, which according to the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development stood at $3.5 billion in the first quarter of 2015.
