A freeway with a speed limit of 130 km/h, connecting Abyek in Qazvin Province to Charmshahr along Qom-Garmsar Highway, was inaugurated on Feb. 25.
“The 158-kilometer Ghadir freeway connects the highways of Tehran-Saveh, Tehran-Qom and Qom-Garmsar on its way and is currently worth 70 trillion rials [$280 million],” Roads Minister Mohammad Eslami was quoted as saying by the news portal of the Roads Ministry.
The construction of the project began in the fiscal 2016-17, IRNA reported.
According to the minister, it allows significant improvement and reduces traffic for commuters traversing the cities of Tehran, Karaj and Qazvin.
Circling Tehran's southwest, the expressway will reduce the travel time for light and heavy vehicles by 90 and 110 minutes respectively. Moreover, 700 million liters of gasoline and 1,600 million liters of diesel will be saved over 20 years.
The government has a 30% share of invested, while 70% are provided by Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters.
Khatam al-Anbiya is an engineering conglomerate and the largest Iranian industrial contractor affiliated to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. Established during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s to help rebuild the country, it has over the years diversified into mechanical, engineering, energy, mining and defense sectors. It is also intimately connected to Iran’s oil and gas industry.
The project completes the North-South and East-West transportation corridors.
According to Deputy Roads Minister Kheirollah Khademi, the southern Tehran bypass freeway is part of Iran’s East-West Corridor connecting Mashhad in the northeast to Tabriz in the country's northwest.
“The expressway, which connects the provinces of Tehran, Alborz, Markazi and Qazvin, will play a significant role in easing the capital’s heavy traffic problem," he was quoted as saying.
Khademi, who doubles as the CEO of Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructure Company, added that the project, which is the government’s longest expressway project, has been divided into the following four sections:
Section-1 is 39 km long and connects Abyek in Qazvin Province to Eshtehard-Mahdasht Road in Alborz Province. The 51-kilometer Section-2 connects Eshtehard-Mahdasht Road to Saveh Highway in Markazi Province. Section-3 stretches further from Saveh Highway to Tehran-Qom Highway and is 30 km long. The fourth and final section is 38 kilometers long, from Tehran-Qom Highway to Qom-Garmsar Highway.
The official told Fars News Agency that an estimated 30,000 vehicles will ply this route daily.
“We also expect a total of 30 million passengers and 30 million tons of commodities to be transported annually via this expressway.”
