Iran: 400 rebuilding projects finished since 2006 war

Source: Compiled by Daily Star, 02-02-2008
The head of the Iranian Headquarters for the Reconstruction of Lebanon said Friday that Iran has completed some 400 projects all across the country since the end of the summer 2006 war with "Israel". "Iran set a target to complete some 600 construction projects, including academic, religious and medical centers, bridges, rural infrastructure facilities, and power stations, 70 percent of which is already completed," engineer Hessam Khoshnevis told Tehran's officla Islamic Republic News Agency.
According to Khoshnevis, Iran has also taken upon itself the task to reconstruct 375 kilometers of damaged highways and roads, 199 kilometers of which have been completed.
"Iran was among the first countries that announced their readiness to contribute to the rebuilding of Lebanon following the destructive war," he noted.
"Some roads were minimally damaged during the war, but we decided to renovate them anew and there were other roads that were reconstructed by the Lebanese Public Works Ministry, but the reconstruction work was not satisfactory, and the Iranian engineers reconstructed them again," he said.
Khoshnevis said that the existence of infrastructure networks not relying on solid engineering studies was a major problem faced by the Iranian reconstruction team.
"We had to dig deeper subterranean water paths and to construct a new sewage system in some areas," he explained.
He added that the Iranian reconstruction team was taking advantage of Lebanese consultant engineers and Lebanon's laboratory facilities in pursuing construction and reconstruction works.