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Iran
Transportation and Telecommunications
As part of Reza Shah's development plan, modernization of the
transportation and telecommunications sectors began in the 1930s
and received huge infusions of capital investment from the mid-1960s
onward under Mohammad Reza Shah's regime. In May 1979, Mehdi Bazargan's
government created an organization called the Crusade for Reconstruction
(Jihad-e Sazandegi or Jihad), which focused on rural reconstruction.
In 1982 the organization claimed to have built 12,872 kilometers
of roads, or nearly 1 kilometer per village.
Transportation
The rugged terrain and sheer size of Iran made the expansion
of transportation facilities difficult. Emphasis was placed on
linking the major population centers and economic centers by rail
and road; superimposed on a map, such main arteries would form
a "T," with the crossbar extending from the northwestern corner
to the northeast along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea.
The vertical line would run through Tehran down to the Gulf .
In 1925 Iran had only 3,218 kilometers of railroad--much of it
in disrepair, but in 1931 a railroad was built to link the two
bodies of water on Iran's northern and southern borders, the port
of Bandar-e Shah (known as Bandar-e Torkaman after the Revolution
of 1979) on the Caspian Sea near Gorgan was linked by rail to
the port of Bandar-e Shahpur (known as Bandar-e Khomeini after
the 1979 Revolution) on the southwestern coast, passing through
Tehran, and in 1941 the northern regions of Iran were connected
by rail from west to east (from Tabriz to Mashhad). This was accomplished
with the aid of foreign technicians and engineers. The railroad
had expanded southeast from Tabriz to Kerman by 1977, and roads
and air travel linked many parts of the country. Roads in good
condition in 1941 totaled 22,526 kilometers; by 1984 there were
51,389 kilometers of paved roads. These roads, built primarily
for military use, had the effect of stimulating development.
The leg of the "T" from Tehran to the Gulf was the most intensively
used transportation corridor, accounting for half of all road
traffic and two-thirds of all rail traffic by 1978. Domestic and
foreign trade from the Gulf traversed this portion of road. Key
ports were connected to each other and to Tehran through the "T"
network. Foreign trade came through the Gulf ports of Khorramshahr,
Bandar-e Shahpur, Bushehr, and Bandar-e Abbas. Khorramshahr handled
trade primarily for the private sector, and Bandar-e Shahpur handled
imports for the governments. Other foreign trade traversed the
northwestern part of Iran. This area was connected by road and
railroad with Turkey and the Soviet Union and with two minor ports
on the Caspian Sea.
The transportation system became incapable of meeting trade demands
during the oil boom of the mid-1970s. Neither the ports nor the
transportation infrastructure leading from the ports could handle
the volume of goods. As a consequence, long lines of ships formed,
some waiting months to unload and adding more than US$1 billion
a year to freight costs. Perishable goods spoiled, and delayed
deliveries of durable goods disrupted production and construction
schedules. Consequently, the government gave the expansion of
port and transportation facilities high priority. By 1976 the
6 major ports of Bandar-e Abbas, Bandar-e Shahpur, Chah Bahar
(known as Bandar-e Beheshti after the 1979 Revolution), Bushehr,
Abadan, and Khorramshahr had a capacity of 12 million tons, with
expansion projects underway. By late 1977, unloading delays were
no longer a problem. As a result of war damage, the ports of Abadan
and Khorramshahr were closed in 1980, leaving the other four main
ports and twelve minor ports in operation.
The construction of fourteen jetties along the Gulf coast was
planned in 1986; one of these, at Jask near the Strait of Hormuz,
opened in February 1986. Built at a cost of approximately US$20
million, it included a covered warehouse, a passenger terminal
building, and a 130- meter-long jetty for the use of small ships
up to 2,000 tons. Especially after the Revolution, the government
expanded roads as well as port facilities. The total length of
roads in 1974 was about 50,000 kilometers, of which 14 percent
was hard-surfaced. A major post-1979 increase in road construction
helped boost total road length in 1984 to 136,381 kilometers,
of which 41 percent was paved. Main or national roads comprised
16,551 kilometers and secondary roads 34,838 kilometers of this
total.
Post-Revolution maintenance of roads and railroads suffered,
as did road access to the ports. The State Railways Organization
extended Iran's 4,567 kilometers of railroad track by the completion
in 1987 of approximately 130 kilometers of electrified track in
the north between Tabriz and Jolfa for imports from the Soviet
Union. An additional 1,300 kilometers were scheduled to be added
to the network by 1989, although war conditions made it unlikely
that this goal would be realized. Other legs were planned between
Mashhad in the northeast and the Soviet border at Sarakhs and
in the north from Gorgan to Gonbad. A joint economic agreement
between Iran and the Soviet Union in August 1987 reportedly called
for a railroad route for the export of Soviet goods through Iran
to the Gulf. A 560-kilometer extension to the World War II- era
railroad linking Iran to Pakistan via Zahedan in southeastern
Iran was completed in 1987 to join Zahedan to Kerman and thence
to Tehran.
Iran's two principal international airports were located in Tehran
(Mehrabad Airport) and Abadan. A new international airport in
Esfahan began operations in 1986, and another airport forty kilometers
south of Tehran was under construction in 1987. In addition, an
international airport was scheduled to be built at Gorgan, east
of the Caspian Sea. In developments affecting smaller, national
airports, the runway at Kerman was extended in FY 1986. Plans
in 1987 called for the airports at Ardabil, Iranshahr, Mashhad,
Sari, and Zabol to be lengthened and widened to accommodate larger
airplanes and for a new runway to be built at Zahedan.
Data as of December 1987
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