The Middle East Economic Digest has an interesting article on how Tehran is financing the billions of dollars required to finish the Tehran subway system despite the sanctions:
Viewed in this light, the ingenuity being shown to attract local private-sector investment to the expansion of Tehran metro is laudable.
A pilot scheme launched early this year to ease the financial burden on the project has proved successful enough to be rolled out across the city. Under the scheme, land is bought by the government and sold to contractors at discounted prices.
Those companies can develop the land as they please, provided they incorporate a metro station into the work and agree to share profits from their commercial project on a short-term basis.
And I think you have confused reality with hallucination one gets from pure opium? is it really that good? One of the perks, I assume ...
Posted by: Abraham | July 20, 2009 at 09:47 PM
Have you been to Tehran recently? I have. I have to tell you the Subway system there is probably the biggest sh-t hole I've ever seen all my life. There's no schedule whatsoever; commuters are treated like wild cattle; the trains are old and faulty; the whole platform reeks of urine.
You take your chances getting on a Subway system that has a world record in getting derailed and killing people en-mass.
[Cyrus responds: LOL!! I think you have confused Tehran with NYC!]
Posted by: Abraham | July 19, 2009 at 01:03 AM