Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi on December 17 inaugurated two new metro stations and said another eight would soon be ready to go into operation on the rapidly expanding subway, LIT magazine reported.

The investment in enlarging the Tehran Metro is the largest such project in West Asia and engineers and officials are moving at breakneck speed as they aim to connect disparate parts of the megacity that serves as Iran’s capital. City authorities are keen to move people away from traditional car ownership as fast as possible, partly given pressing air pollution issues that sometimes require economically disruptive school closures.

Hanachi reportedly said the other eight stations under preparation would be operating on lines 6 and 7 by the end of the current Persian calendar year (March 20, 2021).

He was speaking at an inauguration ceremony at the foot of the Milad Tower tourist attraction, where one of the two new stations he launched is located.

The other station he opened is Amir Kabir, located in Tehran’s central west area.

“All the equipment of Amir Kabir metro station on line 6 of Tehran Metro is entirely Iranian [developed] and note that the Milad Tower station has been built at a depth of 55 metres,” Hanachi added.

US sanctions may have hampered metro network development in recent years, but local companies overcame difficulties by, for instance, reverse engineering escalator designs, he said.

Coronavirus restrictions and anxieties have caused Tehran Metro’s revenues to plummet in the past year, but, according to Hanachi, prior to the virus pandemic some 5.2mn trips were made daily on the underground system. The present figure was around 520,000 per day due to lockdown restrictions, he said.

Tehran Municipality has been in touch with the mayors of London, Seoul, Barcelona, ​​Kabul and other cities for consultations on how to run metro services amid the health emergency, Hanachi added.