$258m Agreement to Establish Tehran-Pardis Metro Linkup

EghtesadOnline: To link Pardis to Tehran via a subway line, an agreement worth 40 trillion rials ($258 million) has been signed by New Towns Development Company and Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters.

News ID: ۷۴۹۷۹۰

07 March 2020

Khatam is an Iranian engineering arm of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, according to Financial Tribune.

Habibollah Taherkhani, the head of NTDC, who also serves as a deputy roads minister, and General Saeed Mohammadi, an IRGC official, signed the agreement on Wednesday, Tasnim News Agency reported.

Taherkhani emphasized that the railroad connection will significantly reduce the time and cost of commutation for the residents of Pardis.

"The expansion of subway network to the satellite city will also curb traffic congestion and air pollution in the capital," he said.

The financial resource for the project is set to be provided jointly by the two sides.

According to Taherkhani, Khatam has agreed to pay 30% of the project’s cost and the remaining 70% will be provided by the government.

Studies for the Tehran-Pardis metro construction started in July 2019 and officials say the project will completed in five years.

Abdolazim Rezaei, the governor of Pardis, earlier told the media that Tehran-Pardis subway will be connected to Tehran Metro’s Line 2 at Farhangsara Station and will stretch 24.7 kilometers to the east.

“The line will have three stations, namely Tehran East Terminal, Tehran-Pardis road toll and Pardis Technology Park in the far east of the capital,” he added.

Pardis is a developing satellite city located in the eastern flank of the capital. In view of the rapidly growing residential construction there, a considerable number of people are expected to converge on Pardis, which calls for expanding urban facilities, such as public transportation services.

The extension of Tehran’s subway network to the capital's surrounding cities like Malard, Varamin and Pardis has been planned years ago.

The construction of new subway lines is high on the municipality’s agenda. However, the pace of implementation of this agenda will take time, perhaps years, because of financial constraints.

Commuters hope things will improve with the allocation of funds and strict oversight on spending.

Tehran Metro Perspective

Currently, Tehran’s subway network stretches over 220 kilometers and comprises seven lines (1 to 7) with nearly 120 stations. Line 6 and 7 are still under construction.

In an ambitious initiative to provide Tehran’s residents with extensive and decent transportation services, four new lines have been designed for expanding the city’s subway network.

Tehran Municipality earlier announced that in collaboration with a French engineering and consulting group and the Iranian engineering group Gueno, four additional lines have been mapped for Tehran Subway.

While the operating lines move through diagonal paths, connecting north to south and west to east of the city through the central parts, the new lines (8 to 11) have been designed to cover new areas, according to TM.

The C-shape Line 8 is to stretch over 37 kilometers starting from the southeast, turning around the city center as a curve and turning back to the northeast of the city with a total of 35 stations.

When constructed, Line 9 will be 46 km long with 39 stations. The line will cover a larger area starting from the west at Line 5's Chitgar Station. It then will travel up north and go toward the east to reach Imam Ali Highway. The line will continue southward and end at Dolatabad Station on Line 6.

The third line, Line 10 will be the uppermost path, starting from Vardavard Station on Tehran-Karaj Line 5. It will travel 41 kilometers across the northern part of the city with 34 stations, reaching northeast to Qanat-e Kosar.

Finally, Line 11, which is comparatively shorter, will stretch over 26 kilometers, starting from Chitgar Station on Line 5, and linking the west to the southeastern flank of Tehran with 17 stations.

All the four new lines will have numerous intersections with the operating lines.

According to the new map, two express lines have also been proposed as a peripheral transport facility. One of the lines is to connect Sadeqiyeh Station on Line 5 to the capital's southern neighborhood Varamin. The other express line is set to link Pardis in the northeast to Parand in the southwest of Tehran Province.

The new map includes four Light Rail Transit lines that mostly cover the central parts of the city and are set to accompany the subway system to ease traffic congestion and crowd concentration in the area.

Shortcomings

Although with the addition of four new lines and maximum coverage, Tehran's subway network will most probably become efficient, still some bugs have been identified by experts. This shows that it can be improved even further.

According to critics, the new subway network map fails to cover satellite cities, such as Eslamshahr.

With the soaring prices in the central parts of the city, people increasingly tend to settle in suburban areas, raising the population of satellite cities like Eslamshahr.

In January 2019, plans were set to extend Line 3 of the subway by another 15 km from Azadegan Junction, with the construction of two new stations, one in Chahardangeh and the other in central Eslamshahr.

The move was set to help ease transportation and reduce traffic congestion.

Experts argue that Eslamshahr is already becoming a big city and since the new subway map is set to become operational in 2041, it will not meet the transportation demand anytime soon.

In addition, the new map has been censured for overlooking population density in the capital city.

TM officials say the subway network has expanded significantly in recent years and over four million people are currently using the trains every day. The figure is expected to climb by a massive 25% after subway lines 6 and 7 are up and running.

But this is definitely not enough for Tehran where, according to statistics, over 15 million people commute daily, many from the surrounding cities and towns.

Subway projects linking areas with poor access to public transportation services need to expand at a much faster rate to meet the demand of their growing population.