Tehran-Mazandaran Highway by March 2018

The highway from Tehran Province’s Roudehen County to Sari, capital of the northern Mazandaran Province, will be completed by the end of the current Iranian year (20 March 2018), said an official at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.

According to Mohammad Reza Kadkhodazadeh, the deputy head of the Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company, affiliated to the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, the highway is 178 kilometers long, of which only 5 km remain incomplete.

“The remaining kilometers will be completed after the ministry acquires the ownership of the properties situated along the route,” he said, adding that the cost of lands across 3 kilometers of the highway has been estimated at 500 billion rials ($13 million), ILNA reported.

Kadkhodazadeh added that the highway has the potential to be developed into a freeway, should investors show interest.

However, multiple access-ways from villages along the highway that impede the collection of road tolls deter investors from putting their money in the project.

“Plans are underway to build freeways parallel to the existing route. We are currently negotiating with investing companies,” he said.  

The Roudehen-Sari Highway is part of a large-scale plan to expand roads leading to the northern regions.

Since the beginning of President Hassan Rouhani’s administration in 2013, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development has placed the management of north-bound roads on its agenda to address the hour-long traffic congestions during peak travel times.

The official said the projects involve the construction of alternative routes and the widening of existing ones to ease traffic.

Five schemes have been devised for the purpose, including the conversion of Roudehen-Sari road to a highway and widening of Haraz Road (Tehran-Mazandaran), in addition to the completion of Qazvin-Tonekabon and Qazvin-Rasht roads as well as the long-delayed Tehran-North Freeway.

Besides removing traffic jams, these new routes can ease access to northern industrial towns for the transit of goods.

Kadkhodazadeh concluded that multiple roads will enable people to choose a route that best suits their destination.

Gilan and Mazandaran provinces that straddle the Caspian coasts are among the most popular tourist hubs drawing millions of domestic tourists each year.

Despite tourism authorities’ much-touted attempts to promote tourism equally across the country, most Iranians, especially from the capital, still tend to opt for the northern regions as their holiday destinations.