Tabriz City Council has awarded the $12-billion contract to develop the Tabriz subway system to Khatam-ol-anbia Construction Camp, the consortium run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The agreement, signed yesterday, commits the IRGC company to building 22.4 kilomtres of subway line with 20 stations over the next seven years.
The Kahtam-ol-anbia Consortium was formed after the Iran-Iraq War by the order of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, and it has been involved in Iran’s largest construction projects, including railways, dams, roads and oil industry developments.
Khatam-ol-anbia Construction Camp has been the main contractor in all government construction projects during President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad’s administration and is currently involved in developing natural gas projects in Southern Pars, contructing 900 km of pipeline from Oslouyeh to Iranshahr, and building Iran’s important piers and residential complexes.
Before becoming the Oil Minister, Rostan Ghassemi led the Khatam-ol-anbia Construction Camp and has said since that Khatam-ol-anbia should replace the foreign companies in Iran’s petroleum projects.
Last May, the Khatam-ol-anbia Construction Camp and all its subsidiary companies were put under sanctions by the United States.
A month later, the United Nation Security Council also blacklisted Kahtam-ol-anbia and four of its subsidiaries, together with another 40 Iranian companies and institutions.
