A number of companies from several countries have expressed interest in implementing construction projects in the town of Pardis, the chief executive of state-owned Omran Pardis New Town Company said.
“Companies from the US, Italy, Britain, Austria, Turkey, China, Russia, Germany and South Korea have started negotiations and we have entered implementation stages with Turkey and South Korea,” Saeid Ghafouri also told ILNA.
The official was speaking on the sidelines of a conference held for orchestrating negotiations for the construction of infrastructure and superstructure, and “generating added value” in Pardis, a town located 17 kilometers northeast of Tehran.
“Investors will be able to tap into the potentials of the construction site of 82,000 residential units,” he added.
According to Ghafouri, 60 rounds of negotiations were held between local and foreign investors in the conference and both private and public sector investors participated.
The negotiations are aimed at completing the construction of residential units falling under the umbrella of Mehr Housing Plan, the controversial scheme launched by the previous administration and whose completion has become a significant burden for the government of President Hassan Rouhani.
“Infrastructure and superstructure services of Mehr Housing Plan [in Pardis] will be impossible by only using state budget,” he said, adding that at least 25.84 trillion rials ($536.42 million) are needed to complete the existing structures.
The official noted that the government currently has only enough resources to provide some infrastructure services, including power and water supply for a limited number of Mehr residential projects in the area, therefore the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development has invited private, public and state investors to work in Pardis.
“Last year, trilateral cooperation began in the Mehr housing projects of Pardis and we took the first step where executive operations for the construction of infrastructure and superstructure services of Phase 11 began with the participation of investors from Kosovo and Turkey, and using the PPP [public–private partnership] method,” he said.
According to Ghafouri, 1.7 trillion rials ($35.78 million) worth of operations were implemented in Mehr residential units of Pardis during the previous fiscal year to March 2017, whereas about 10.4 trillion rials ($218.94 million) of the required credits are expected this year through multilateral partnerships.
“Chinese companies have proposed building residential blocks in Pardis, but our priority is to complete the Mehr housing projects of this region first,” he said.
However, Pardis is not the only new town targeted to benefit from the support of local and foreign investors.
Mahmoud Mirian, a board member of the state-owned New Towns Development Company, had said in November 2017 that private sector investors have put up more than 18 trillion rials ($380 million) for the establishment of new towns in Iran in the past four years while eight agreements have been signed with investors from Germany, Italy and Luxembourg for development projects.
