Section-1 of Tehran-North Freeway to Come on Stream by Feb. 19

Section-1 of Tehran-North Freeway has made 99% progress and will come on stream by the end of the current Iranian month on Feb. 19, says the head of Plan and Budget Organization.
“Today, the freeway’s 32-kilometer-long Section-1 is worth around $1 billion,” Mohammad Baqer Nobakht was also quoted as saying by Fars News Agency upon visiting the project’s construction site on Tuesday.
The official noted that from the fiscal 1996-97, when the freeway project kicked off, until 2014-15, it made only 17% progress, adding that the pace of construction received a considerable boost during the government of President Hassan Rouhani. 
The Tehran-North Freeway project consists of four sections spanning 121 km in total to connect the capital city Tehran to the northern Mazandaran Province.
Section-4 was inaugurated in March 2014 while sections 2 and 3 have yet to be completed.
“By 2021-22, 50% of section-2 will also come on stream. The completion of this part of the project requires 20 trillion rials [$153 million],” says Parviz Fattah, the head of Mostazafan Foundation, the charity organization in charge of implementing the project.  
The Plan and Budget Organization has earmarked 850 billion rials ($6.5 million) for Section-3.
According to Fattah, Mostazafan Foundation shoulders 50% of the investment that goes into the freeway, while the other half is provided by the government.