NCRI – Ali Beytollahi, the head of the Iranian regime’s Roads and Urban Development Research Center, has admitted that Tehran is among the five largest cities in the world where there is a very high risk to life.
In an interview with the state-run ILNA news agency on December 31, Beytollahi added: “Tehran is a city of potential hazards that threaten the lives of its inhabitants. There is risk of earthquake and collapse, explosion hazards such as gas pipelines, air pollution, and collapse of old fabrics and infrastructure, threatening the lives of Tehran residents, and given the high population density in Tehran, the amount of losses and casualties may be very high.”
He referred to 51,000 aqueducts in Tehran and said: “Now, most gardens in Tehran are replaced with buildings and construction is done on these lands but the aqueducts remain in limbo and untouched. During construction and digging out the earth, the aqueduct water flow is blocked but the aqueducts try to make their way and Tehran soil is very discrete. So this process weakens the soil and we can see these days that several collapses occurred on the streets of Tehran.”
This state official stressed that the reason for so many street collapses in Tehran is subsurface water and said: “This subsurface water will wash the soil gradually forming underground cavities that grow into big holes and eventually collapse and at this stage lead to deep collapse on the streets of Tehran.”
