Iran: TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS



Overview: Constant construction and expansion of the road and rail networks, even during the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), have resulted in an overland transportation system that is adequate for freight and passenger demands in the early 2000s. Ports destroyed during the war have been rebuilt, and new ones on the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf have been developed. Air transportation is relatively inexpensive, and all large cities and many smaller ones have airports with regularly scheduled daily flights.



Roads: Under Reza Shah Pahlavi (ruled 1925–41), a construction program provided Iran with a national system of roads. The road system was expanded in the 1960s and 1970s. After the 1978–79 Revolution, road construction programs focused on connecting rural areas to provincial cities. Since 1989, road construction has stressed ring roads around large cities and multi-lane highways between major metropolitan areas. The three national auto routes are the A–1 across northern Iran from the Turkish border in the west to the Afghan border in the east, and connecting Tabriz, Tehran, and Mashhad; the A–2 across southern Iran from the Iraqi border in the west to the Pakistani border in the east; and the Tehran-Qom-Esfahan-Shiraz highway, which traverses central Iran from north to south. In 2003 Iran had a total of 103,000 kilometers of paved roads and 79,000 kilometers of graded, unpaved roads. Beginning in the mid-1990s, subsidized gasoline supplies and increased domestic automobile manufactures have spurred overcrowding of the road system.



Railroads: The rail system, which originally was constructed in the 1920s and 1930s, has been undergoing constant expansion since 1989. In 2002 Iran had a total of 7,201 kilometers of rail line, 146 kilometers of which were electrified and 94 kilometers at the borders of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan were broad rather than standard gauge. Only 13 of Iran’s 30 provinces had railroad service in the early 2000s. The five main lines of the national system radiate from Tehran: one runs south to Khorramshahr and Abadan at the head of the Persian Gulf; one runs south to the Strait of Hormuz at Bandar-e Abbas; one runs southeast to Kerman, with a route under construction farther east to Zahedan, which already is connected to the Pakistan State Railways; one runs east to Mashhad and connects with the Central Asian system on the Turkmenistan border, and includes a spur to the eastern side of the Caspian Sea; and the fifth line runs northwest to Tabriz and the border with Turkey, where it connects to the Turkish State Railroad and includes a spur north of Tabriz to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan enclave. In 2005 connections between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf were improved by a new line connecting Mashhad with Baqf in central Iran. Tehran also has a combined underground and surface rail commuter system, and in 2005 metro rail systems were under construction in Esfahan and Shiraz.



Ports: In 2003 about 20 million tons of cargo passed through Iran’s ports. About 75 percent of that amount went through Bandar-e Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz. In the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), destruction and Iraqi occupation of Khorramshahr on the Iraq border caused that city to lose its status as Iran’s busiest port, giving greater importance to Bushehr and Bandar-e Lengeh on the Persian Gulf and Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman, as well as to Bandar-e Abbas. The main oil terminal is Khark Island, located 25 kilometers offshore in the northeastern Persian Gulf. Since 1992, Caspian ports have handled more trade as commerce with the Central Asian countries has increased. Modernization projects are underway in Bandar-e Anzeli on the Caspian Sea and Chabahar. The national Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) has routes in the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea and carries cargo to Europe and the Far East. In the early 2000s, IRISL had 84 vessels with a total tonnage of 2.5 million.



Inland Waterways: In 2004 Iran had 850 kilometers of inland waterways. The most important is the 193-kilometer-long Shatt al Arab (Arvanrud in Persian), which is formed in Iraq by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and then forms the Iran-Iraq border until it flows into the Persian Gulf. The ports of Abadan and Khorramshahr are located along the Shatt al Arab.



Civil Aviation and Airports: In 2004 Iran had 305 commercial airports, 129 of which had paved runways. Of those, 40 had runways longer than 3,000 meters. International airports are located at Tehran, Tabriz, Mashhad, Bandar-e Abbas, Bushehr, Esfahan, and Shiraz, and on the islands of Kish in the Persian Gulf and Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz. In 2004 Iran’s airports served about 4.3 million international passengers, about two-thirds of whom flew on domestic airlines. Because of security concerns, the military closed the newly opened Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran from mid-2004 until mid-2005, even though it was expected to be a major regional air hub. When it reopened in May 2005, its annual capacity was 6.5 million passengers, but its final design capacity is 40 million passengers and 700,000 tons of cargo. Plans called for gradual expansion of services. In 2004 the national airline, Iran Air, served 15 cities in Iran with connections to the Persian Gulf and European and Asian cities; it used a fleet of 36 aircraft and employed about 12,000 workers. The second-largest carrier, the private Asseman Airlines, connects the largest domestic cities with destinations on the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in Asia. In 2005 some 15 heliports were in operation.



Pipelines: In 2004 Iran had 16,998 kilometers of natural gas pipeline, 8,256 kilometers of oil pipeline, 7,808 kilometers of pipeline for refined products, 570 kilometers of pipeline for liquid petroleum gas, and 212 kilometers of pipeline for gas condensate. Iran’s central pipeline infrastructure is designed for the distribution of natural gas for domestic use and for the domestic transit of oil, including from offshore oil fields to processing centers. That structure has been supplemented as the natural gas industry and the fuel export industry expanded. Since 2000 several new natural gas pipelines have been planned; some have failed because of geopolitical considerations (for example, U.S. opposition to a key Iranian role in delivering Central Asian oil and gas to the West), and some, such as the gas export line from Iran to Turkey, function at reduced capacity. In 2006 plans call for new pipelines to exploit markets in Armenia and Pakistan. The 160-kilometer line to Armenia is scheduled for completion in late 2006. The 2,600-kilometer line to Pakistan, which potentially also could supply India, remains in the planning stage in 2006.

Telecommunications: Most phases of telecommunications services are controlled by the state Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI). Between 1995 and 2003, the number of telephone land lines increased from 86 to 146 per 1,000 population. In 2003 the ratio of telephone subscribers was 271 per 1,000 population. A large-scale modernization program, backed by heavy state investment, has aimed at improving and expanding urban service and reaching rural areas that lack telephone service. In 2005 an estimated 10 percent of Iran’s population (68 million) had mobile telephone service through one mobile network, which was heavily congested and had a long waiting list. Despite the need for another network, in 2005 the Iranian parliament forced the Turkish company Turkcell to withdraw from a potential mobile phone consortium, in the process damaging Iranian-Turkish relations. Mobile Telephones Network of South Africa then accepted Iran’s stringent licensing conditions and replaced Turkcell in late 2005. Internet use expanded rapidly in the early 2000s from an estimated 250,000 users in 1999 to an estimated 7 million users in 2004. The Telecommunications Company of Iran estimated that Iran will have 25 million Internet users by 2009. In 2005 some 12 major certified Internet service providers (ISPs) were in operation. However, the state filtered Internet content intensively.