Construction of 98.4 km four-line metro, two east-west lines and two north-south, resuscitated. Lines 1, 2 and 4 are under construction. 9.2 km section of western end of 20.4 km-long Line 2 opening in two stages. First stage with four stations to Imam Khomeini Square is opening September, 1999 and second stage in February, 2000. First section of 34.3 km-long Line 1 will open August, 2000 between interchange with Line 2 at Imam Khomeini Square and Ali Abad. Completion of Line 1, of which 14.9 km is underground, is scheduled for August, 2004. Sept 1999.   President Mohammad Khatami on 21st February, 2000 inaugurated Tehran's first underground line. Awarded to French companies using Zokor TBMs before the Islamic revolution of 1979, the metro has instead been built by Iranian companies with Chinese technical help. The 9.4 km-long line, the first in the Gulf, was built over a period of 13 years at a cost of about $383 million and 40 workers lives. Several years ago, a main street in downtown Tehran opened to swallow cars and people when the one of the tunnels caved in. The line, which has nine stations, connects central Tehran with the western suburb of Sadeqieh and merges with a regular railway service to Karaj, 30 km west of Tehran. The metro capacity is 40,000 pax/h and it will commence limited operations on 21st March. An extension and three more lines totalling 100 km are planned. More information on the TBMs from thesegmentman@aol.com March 2000.Construction of $500 million extension of Tehran's underground system will begin in 2002 for opening in 2010. China has agreed a $100 million loan to extend a line to the Ghazvin region, west of Tehran, and another $29 million to complete a line in the western suburbs. Chinese contractors Noringo expect to subcontract 50% of the work to local firms. July 2000.  Inauguration of Subway No 1, from Tairish square in northern Tehran to the southern parts of the capital. Line will eventually extend to Imam Khomeini airport, under construction some 30 km south of the capital. Tehran currently spends $800 million/year on metro construction. Visit www.avand.net and www.iraniantrade.org 37/01.Line 7 of the Tehran metro is divided in two lots of an approximate total length of 26 km. The bored diameter is 9.14 m whereas the outer and inner diameters are respectively 8.85 and 8.15 m. Geology consists of alluvium from coarse grain to fine grain and maybe bedrock. The owner of the project is Tehran Urban and Suburban Railway Company (TUSRC). Sepasad is the general contractor and subcontracted the construction to SELI for one section and Hara Institute for the second section.SELI will excavate the north-south lot (14 km) using one refurbished, upsized dual mode EPB TBM made by SELI using some minor components of a Lovat TBM used for the Torino metro (mainly cylinders and back-up). Lining rings will be placed as per a 6+1 segment configuration with 35 cm-thick 1.5 m-long bolted universal segments and bi-component grout pumped to the extrados. The maker of the segments moulds has not been selected yet. Same of Milan has been chosen as supplier of the segments moulds. Tunnelling excavation is scheduled to commence in April 2009 and will last three years. Hara Institute is the subcontractor of the west-east lot (12 km). SELI will supply the TBM and back-up equipment for this lot and will be responsible for the TBM assembly and excavation of the first 300 metres. Visit www.tehranmetro.com, www.sepasad.com/indexEN.asp and www.selitunnel.com 24/08.