Iran, a Middle Eastern country bordering the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea with a population of nearly 85 million, covers 1.65 million square kilometers (637,068 square miles) making it the 17th-largest country in the world. Because of the country’s vast size, along with conflicts like the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, its infrastructure is relatively underdeveloped. Less than half of its 140,200 kilometers (86,991 miles) of roads are paved, and the national power grid has been operating at a deficiency dating back to the mid-1980s when Iraqi forces attacked Iran power stations.
In recent years, however, the Iranian government has been working to improve the country’s highways and power capacity as well as access to clean drinking water. Here is a look at four major in-development transportation, oil and gas, and water supply projects in Iran.
1. Shahid Qassem Soleimani and Morvarid Makran Refineries
Iran, the world’s fourth-largest producer of oil, is aiming to increase its total barrels per day (bpd) capacity by 600,000 with the construction of the Shahid Qassem Soleimani Petro-refinery and the Morvarid Makran Refinery. Both projects, expected to be complete by 2027, are being built in Southern Iran and will not only increase Iran’s refining capacity and petroleum products production but also create jobs and prevent the import of gasoline.
Bank Melli Iran, Tejarat Bank, and Refah Bank are funding the Shahid Qassem Soleimani Petro-refinery in Jask Island. The financiers, which are investing $11.1 billion into the refinery, signed an MOU with developers Tadbir Energy Development Group, Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company, Ahdaf Investment Group, and National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company during a ceremony in August 2022. Bank Mellat, Parsian Bank, and Mofid Economic Group also signed an MOU with the domestic companies to invest $6.7 billion in the Morvarid Makran Refinery in Bandar-Abbas. President Ebrahim Raisi and Oil Minister Javad Oji also attended the ceremony.
Each refinery is expected to contribute 300,000 bpd of crude oil production and will increase Iran’s national processing capacity by more than 50 percent once complete. The Shahid Qassem Soleimani Petro-refinery will produce a mix of fuel (65 percent) and chemical products (35 percent). The two projects are major reasons why ResearchAndMarkets projects an annual average growth rate of 3.6 percent for Iran’s construction sector from 2023 to 2026.
2. Improving 10 Key Highways
Iran is spending $1.07 billion over the next two years to improve the condition of 10 important stretches of highway with the goal of making highway transport safer and more efficient. From 1998 to 2017, 459,000 Iranians died in traffic accidents, more than the number of Iranian casualties in the eight years of the Iran-Iraq war. In 2013 the World Health Organization reported that 17 per 100,000 people died in traffic accidents globally; Iran’s average that year was 32 per 100,000.
The Transport and Urban Development Ministry, which is conducting the highway improvements, is also planning a comprehensive road development program that will extend the country’s freeway network to 10,000 kilometers (6,213 miles) and improve roads linking Kashan with Natanz and Isfahan, Qzadvin with Zamjan, and Qom with Kashan, among others. This project, which doesn’t yet have a budget, is expected to be completed by 2027.
3. Khaf-Herat Link Project
The heads of Iran Railways and Afghanistan Railways met in June 2022 to discuss the completion of the Khaf-Herat railway, a 225-kilometer (140-mile) cross-border railway linking Eastern Iran to Western Afghanistan. Construction began in 2007 and the first three sections of the four-section railway were inaugurated in December 2020. The first phase of section four involves the construction of a 43-kilometer (26.7-mile) route passing through the Ghorian, Zenda Jan, and Enjeel districts in Iran and reaching Rabat Paryan in Afghanistan.
The new railway, projected to have an annual capacity of more than 321,000 passengers, is expected to improve passenger transport between the two countries. It’s also expected to have an annual cargo transport capacity of 6.8 million tons, which will boost trade between the two countries; Tehran has been Afghanistan’s primary trading partner since 2017.
In February 2022, Abbas Khatibi, Iran’s deputy transport and urban development minister, said the rail network will eventually be linked to China and several Central Asian countries. It’s part of the larger East-West Railway Corridor project, which extends from China to Europe. Iran has built more than 7,000 kilometers (4,349 miles) of railways since 2015.
4. Water Supply Projects
President Raisi visited the Sistan-Baluchestan Province in Southeast Iran in May 2023 to inaugurate 11 electricity projects and multiple water supply lines. The electricity projects, valued at about $775,000, include the construction and upgrade of 83 kilometers (51 miles) of electricity lines and the installation of 26 transformers.
In addition, Alireza Ghasemi, head of Sistan-Baluchestan Water and Wastewater Company, announced that water supply projects were completed in 19 cities in the Sistan-Baluchestan Province. These projects, valued at $5.5 million, will provide water to 155 rural areas. Iran is also laying pipe for a project involving water transfer and desalination from the Sea of Oman to the province. The $113.3 million project was about 11 percent complete as of May 2023.