Over 55,000 hectares of depilated buildings, 10,000 hectares of historical structures, and 54,000 hectares of urbanized areas -- which currently host over 18 million people -- have been earmarked for redevelopment, said the minister of roads and urban development in the city of Zanjan. Renovating our urban areas is among our top priorities and we aim to work in tandem with other institutions and financial funds to envisage such plans, IRNA quoted Abbas Akhundi as saying. The minister said the government aims to tackle the current recession in the housing sector and has pushed through plans to pay developers and project contractors. The Rouhani administration has faced an enormous challenge in providing the housing sector with the required finances to complete many semi-finished projects across the country. Until recently, large-scale housing projects have relied heavily on banks and finances from the capital market.
