Urban rail network: Ministry’s priority
The Ministry of Roads and Urbanization focuses on urban rail networks. The Minister of Roads and Urbanization, Abbas Akhundi, emphasized the development of the urban rail transportation network in this Ministry and said: “Currently, urban planning in Iran is focused on automobiles. A portion of transportation in large cities is due to suburban transportation. For example, approximately 1.2 million people commute from the suburbs to Tehran every day and 98% of them use their personal car. This amount of automotive travel wastes time and causes pollution and accidents”.
The plans to develop the rail network as proposed by the Ministry of Roads and Urbanization requires some 28 billion dollars in investment. The Ministry hopes to employ the National Development Fund and foreign investors to partially finance this project.
Meat and chicken with discount for Moharram ceremonies
The Livestock Support Company has announced that there are no problems in providing red meat and chicken for the month of Moharram and mosques and religious establishments will receive discounts. The Moharram mourning ceremony is a memorial held for Hussein bin Ali, the Third Imam of Shia Muslims who alongside his allies was killed in Karbala located in modern day Iraq in the year 61 of the exodus.
Livestock Support Company offers frozen chicken meat at 57.000 IRR ($1.4 at market exchange rate) per kilogram and mixed frozen red meat at 230.000 IRR per kilogram to religious organizations. The average price of packaged chicken is 70.000 IRR per kilogram.
Read more about contribution to Moharram ceremonies
Ban on luxury cars remains in place
The import of automobiles with engine displacements higher than 2500 cc will remain banned. Ali Aliabadi, the Head of the Import and Export Regulations Office at the Ministry of industries, Mining and Trade confirmed this restriction and added: “The Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade has no plans to alter the criteria for luxury automobiles other than the 2500 cc displacement”.
The import of these automobiles has been banned since 2013 following the currency crisis. Import tax for sub 1500 cc automobiles is 40%, and for sub 2500 cc automobiles is 50%. In the first five months of the current year more than 38.000 automobiles valued at more than one billion dollars, have passed through customs. This number has shown a 40% growth compared to the same period last year.
Filling wells could help solving water problem?
The Ministry of Energy has announced that from June 2013 to May 2017, 32.7 thousand wells have been filled. Estimates from the Ministry of Energy show that 92% of water is used in agriculture, 6% for drinking and 2% is used in industries. The Ministry of Agriculture however disagrees and claims that only 60% of water resources are used in this sector.
Filling illegal wells and equipping legal ones to smart counters are the current plans of Tehran Regional Water Authority. Varamin Valley, in south of Tehran, where more than 3100 wells have been dug, suffers from land subsidence up to 3 meters.
Read more about Filling wells
