| Nearly three months after its grand inauguration by President Hojatoleslam Mohammad Khatami and other Iranian and foreign dignitaries, the Imam Khomeini International Airport remains unusable, Radio Farda reported on 14 April. Construction of the facility cost some $500 million, but the work is substandard and the airport does not conform to international standards, the station reported. The original engineers quit after the Foundation of the Dispossessed and Disabled (Bonyad-i Mostazafan va Janbazan) took over management of the project. The foundation changed many of the original specifications, so that now the runways must be repaved, neither the electrical power nor the runway lighting function properly, and the aircraft-refueling equipment is inadequate. |