After an ‘intentional’ fire in a 28,000 square meter garden in Araj in Ozgol located in Tehran District 4, it is now the turn of Shahid Araqi’s garden in District 3 to be razed for conversion into commercial space for construction of a skyscraper.
The garden measures 126,000 sq m.
It is obvious that the fires were started deliberately to create space for the new iron and concrete monsters, the Persian language government newspaper ‘Iran’ reported.
While the price of one sq m of land is about $850 to $1150 at present in the district, after being converted for commercial/residential use, the same space will command nearly $4300 per sq m.
Multiply it by the number of floors and space per floor and it will rake in hefty profits for the builders.
The deliberate destruction of private gardens indicates that the ‘Tree ID Project’ cannot prevent greedy land owners from being devious.
A resident in the area on condition of anonymity pointed to the planned tower construction on another plot, originally a huge garden. “We found that some people quietly entered the garden and began to cut down the trees clandestinely.”
‘We dialed 137 and informed the Tehran Municipality officials but unfortunately they didn’t take any measures to stop the destruction,” he added.
Similar complaints by residents and environmentalists have been heard and mentioned in the press time and again, but to no avail.
