With the inauguration of Alborz Tunnel along Tehran-North Freeway’s Section-II within a month, travel time between the capital city Tehran and northern provinces will be cut by 45 minutes, a deputy minister of roads and urban development said.
“The tunnel is 6.5 kilometers long and has presently made 95% progress. Along with the tunnel, 2.5 kilometers of roads on both sides of the tunnel will also be launched and a total of 9 kilometers of Tehran-North Freeway will be inaugurated within a month,” Kheirollah Khademi was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
The official noted that Alborz Tunnel is the longest in West Asia.
The completion of Section-II and construction of Section-III of Tehran-North Freeway will be passed over to the next administration, Khademi who also doubles as the CEO of the Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructure Company, was quoted as saying by ILNA back in May.
“The northbound lanes of Section-II, which have so far made 60% progress, will be inaugurated in the next few months, but the southbound lanes, with 30% progress up until now, will remain for the next administration to complete,” he said back then.
He added that the construction of the 47-kilometer-long Section-III has not yet begun.
“This section is the most challenging part of Tehran-North freeway project, both geographically and topographically,” he said.
According to the official, a total of 100 quadrillion rials ($400 million) worth of investments are needed for the completion of sections II and III.
“Negotiations with a Chinese company for the funding of Tehran-North Freeway’s Section-III have reached the final stage,” Khademi said recently.
“The construction of the freeway requires significant investments and we are looking for foreign financial resources. Once the funding is provided, construction on this remaining section of Tehran-North freeway will begin.”
The freeway project, which connects the capital city Tehran to the city of Chalous in Mazandaran Province, has been referred to as one of the most protracted development projects in Iran, as numerous deadlines for completing its different sections had been missed.
When complete, it will cut about 60 km off the old route connecting Tehran to northern provinces.
The mega project consists of four phases stretching over 120 km.
President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated the 32-kilometer-long Section-I on February 23, 2020. This section came on stream around 23 years after the freeway’s construction was launched in the fiscal 1996-97.
Sections II and III pass through mountainous terrain, are not easily accessible and will take much longer to complete.
Section-II begins in Alborz Province’s Doab Village in Savadkouh County and stretches to Pol-e Zangouleh Village in the northern Mazandaran Province’s Kelardasht County.
The final stretch of the freeway project, Section-IV, which is 20 kilometers long, was inaugurated in March 2014.
The cost of the project, according to Global Construction Review, which was planned in the nineties and originally due to be completed in 2017, is thought to run into several billion dollars.
In 2015, the World Highways website reported that the third section had an estimated cost of $1.5 billion, which prices must have risen since then.
At that time, China Communications was associated with the scheme.
According to the Tehran-North Freeway Construction and Operation Company, the third section will be based on a design, build and finance contract.
China Railway Academy Company, a subsidiary of China Railway Group, signed a memorandum of understanding to build section three in January 2018, but withdrew after the previous US administration reimposed sanctions on Iran later that year.
