Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian says 5,931 energy projects worth 8.84 quadrillion rials (about $210.4 billion) are underway across the country, IRNA reported on Wednesday.

Speaking on the occasion of finishing the A-B-Iran program on Wednesday, Ardakanian said during this program 227 major projects with a total investment of 335.6 trillion rials (about $7.99 billion) have gone operational in the country.

Under the A-B-Iran scheme [the acronyms A and B stand for water, electricity in Persian], during the current Iranian calendar year (March 2019-March 2020), 10 trillion rials (over $238 million) of projects were inaugurated in each of the country’s provinces, on average.  

Based on this program, the Energy Ministry inaugurated some water, electricity projects across the country every week.

According to the minister, during the 20 weeks of the mentioned program, the minister made 31 trips to various provinces for inaugurating energy projects.

The official also announced that three power plants and 40 new projects worth 60 trillion rials (about $1.4 billion) will be inaugurated during the first quarter of the next Iranian calendar year (March 20-June 20).

Ardakanian further mentioned some of the other programs carried out by the energy ministry including the establishment of joint committees and consortiums with the neighboring countries for contribution to their energy projects.

He also mentioned the expansion of the country’s water and electricity networks in the rural areas and hailed the ministry’s efforts in managing natural disasters like floods and earthquakes in some regions.

The official also noted that the energy ministry’s programs will continue in the next Iranian calendar year and the ministry is already working on a new scheme called “optimizing consumption in the sanctions era” that focuses on modifying consumption patterns for better use of energy resources in the country.