Publish Date: 23 June 2016 - 18:25

TEHRAN, Jun. 23 (MNA) – To commemorate the Iranian national day of transportation, Tehran will host the first edition of International Exhibition on Road Construction, Road Maintenance, Transportation, and Relevant Industries.

The first edition of Tehran International Exhibition on Road Construction, Road Maintenance, Transportation, and Relevant Industries will be opened on December 5, 2016 in Iranian capital city of Tehran. The event is scheduled coincident with the Iranian national day of transportation.

In addition to Iranian ministries and organizations engaged with the field, many Iranian and foreigner companies are expected to showcase their latest developments and equipment at the exhibition. The three day event is scheduled to be wrapped up on December 7.

Different machineries of constructing roads, tunnels, and bridges, along with heavy vehicles of the industry like bulldozers, loaders, rippers, graders, concrete mixing transport trucks, asphalt milling machines, and pavers will be staged at the event.

Road maintenance machineries like winter service vehicles and technologies related to road surface marking will also be showcased at the event.

The exhibition is intended to boost the transportation and road industries of Iran in post-sanctions era. Attracting capital and investors is another agenda of the event which is to be held at Milad Tower’s venue for international conferences and exhibitions.

In 1997, then Iranian ministry of road and transportation (now merged with housing ministry and titled Ministry of Road and Public Development) proposed December 4, to be called the national day of transportation in Iran and it was passed by the High Council of Public Culture. The proposition was made to commemorate the widespread volunteering of truck drivers in 1982, when the country was hit by a devastating shortage of necessary goods and the call of Imam Khomeini for transporting the goods from the southern ports of Iran to Iranian cities was welcomed by truck drivers and truck owners across the country. As the southern ports of Iran were under the bombardment of Saddam’s Baathist regime, more than 100 vessels of necessary goods were left un-disembarked at the ports.  

Inspired and encouraged by Saudi monarchy, who was afraid of spread of democracy after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, in the monarch ruled region of the Middle East, and US government, which has lost a key ally in the region, Shah of Iran, Saddam imposed a devastating war on Iran with a widespread attack kicked off on September 1980. The Baathist regime continued the war with the financial support of Persian Gulf monarchies till 1988. Unable to pay off the debts to one of its supporters, Kuwait which had lent US$14 billion to Iraq, Saddam invaded the tiny neighbor in August 1990.    

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