The new cities--Hashtgerd, Andisheh, Pardis and Parand--are the four new housing settlements put up by the Housing and Urban Development Ministry.

The monthly `New Cities' reported in its latest issue that over 50,000 was projected to have settled in the said cities by the end of the first half of last year (September).

According to the same report, over 8,850 residents settled in the new settlement city of Hashtgerd over the said period, the number expected to rise to over 53,000 by the end of the Iranian calendar year 1383 (2004-2005). The city has a full accommodation capacity of 350,000.

Meanwhile, 31,650 settled in the new settlement city of Andisheh in the first half of last year. The number is expected to reach 50,000 by the end of the Third Plan. Andisheh has a full capacity of 150,000 residents.

The new Pardis satellite city has absorbed over 9,775 inhabitants with the figure expected to reach 75,000 by the year 2005. The city has room for 200,000 residents.

The city of Parand which is the newest in the series, attracted some 588 residents in the first half of 1379, with the figure expected to reach 27,000 by the end of the Iranian calendar year 1383. Full capacity of the city is estimated at 77,000.

It should be noted that the first half of the previous year saw a total of 147,736 people settled in 12 new cities throughout the country and, with the establishment of another city (Binalood) in Khorasan province, the country's 13 new settlement cities will increase to 576,000 by the year 2005.

Population growth rates in the years 1998-1999 in the new cities were registered at 39.5 and 57 percent, respectively.

Furthermore, with the establishment of more infrastructural facilities, services and employment opportunities, the rate of population saturation of the new cities is expected to grow.

Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said last Friday that many villages in the country now have access to water, power and telecommunications facilities, adding that in many cities residents own cellular phones.

Meanwhile, a member of the Islamic Council of Karaj, a city west of Tehran, said that the standard of living in the industrial satellite township has enabled it to achieve a growth rate of 3.5 percent among suburb dwellers.

Mahmoud Dadgoo further said that the lack of systematic, compiled settlement regulations and substandard building construction have been the main causes for the imbalance in urban demography.

According to the official, Karaj has a population capacity of 600,000 and is capable of rendering service to about 200,000, but currently some 1.5 million people are settled in the city.

In another development, the department for economic statistics of the Central Bank of Iran said in a report published on Saturday that in the last three quarters of 1379 (ended March 20), construction permits to build 97,390 housing units in various urban areas within the country were issued, a figure which indicates a decrease in housing construction by 1.3 percent compared to that of the previous year.

The average area of establishments constructed was 356 square meters, showing a 17.9 percent decrease compared to the corresponding figure for the preceding year.

... Payvand News - 3/31/01 ... --