Tehran, 21 June 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- Pinpointing the location of all Iranian tourism and historical attractions on the path of the 11000-kilometer roadway which will connect Iran to the Asian highway network was finally completed.

Announcing this, Mohammad Kazem Kholdi Nasab, director general of the international department of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO), said that after the approval of the authorities of ICHTO, the final plan will be submitted to Iran’s Management and Planning Organization.

The Asian Highway Network is a network of 141,000 kilometers of standardized roadways crisscrossing 32 Asian countries with linkage to Europe.

During the 60th summit of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP) which was held in March 2005 in Tehran, ICHTO was asked to prepare a complete map in which in addition to the historical and tourism attraction sites of Iran, the location of all tourism destinations including natural and historical sites, hotels and lodgings, and all entertaining places of the country are accurately marked as part of the project of constructing a 11000-kilometer highway connecting Iran to the Asian highway network and submit it to the Management and Planning Organization.

The Asian Highway Project was initiated in 1959 with the aim of promoting the development of international road transportation in the region. During the first phase of the project (1960-1970), considerable progress was made; however, the process was slowed down when financial assistance was suspended in 1975.

The act for Iran’s membership in Asian Highway Project was submitted to Iran’s Cabinet Ministers in December 2005 which was later passed by the parliament. Construction of an Asian Highway in Iran is item 28 in the Fourth Development Program of the Iranian government.

Entering into the 1980s and 1990s, regional political and economic changes spurred new momentum for the Asian Highway Project and it became one of the three pillars of Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development (ALTID) project.

The Intergovernmental Agreement on the Asian Highway Network was adopted on 18th of November 2003 by an intergovernmental meeting held in Bangkok, was open for signature in April 2004 in Sahnghai and entered into force on 4 July 2005.

According to UNESCAP, a total of 26 billion US dollar has already been invested in the improvement and upgrading of the Asian Highway Network and UNESCAP secretariat is now working with its member countries to identify financial sources for the development of the network to improve their road transport capacity and deficiency.

 See Also

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