In simple language, a freeway is a wide road with at least two lanes on each direction in order for traffic to travel fast. Both directions are separated from each other by proper railings. But a highway is a wide road with at least two lanes on each direction. Traffic is underway on each direction and there are special access roads that are at least 3200 meters apart from one another. Another difference between freeways and highways is that the former can be used by motorists by paying tolls. Although at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution the existing statistics pointed to the existence of 13,800 km of main roads and 27,500 km of side roads, the total main roads built according to international standards of the time (and standards of present time) were limited to routes between Zahedan and Birjand, Torbat Heidariyeh and Zahedan, Kerman, Bojnourd and Mashhad, small parts of Tehran-Mashhad route and parts of Ahvaz-Abadan route. As statistics show, over 70 percent of road building operations during the post revolution era took place in the decade beginning from 1989 (after the end of the Iraqi-imposed war). In that period, big projects were implemented for expansion of the main road network of the country, small samples of which can be seen in Tehran-Mashhad route. The previous route connecting Tehran to Mashhad passed through natural terrains and lacked necessary safety facilities. It also covered a longer distance mainly due to the route between Neishabour and Shahroud. At any rate, high traffic on this route drew the attention of the officials concerned to the need to expand pivotal roads. On the other hand, such plans were plagued with problems such as lack of necessary credits and shortcomings originating from the imposed war which made it impossible to invest in building roads and expanding the existing communication routes. At the beginning of the decade of transportation and communication (1992-2002) in 1992, the Ministry of Roads and Transportation came up with an idea on the basis of which instead of forgetting or improving the existing routes, four-lane roads should be built using the existing surface transport infrastructures. So construction of highways (four lane roads) based on Iranian style began. Before that, the only four-lane highway that existed in Iran was part of Mashhad-Quchan road. However, this marked the beginning of new stage of road building in Iran. Based on this method, a second lane was constructed along the existing main roads in order to ease traffic and reduce fatal road accidents. As a matter of fact, at that time the private sector was not ready to make investments for construction of freeways and the general budget of the government did not allow it to contribute to freeway building projects. Therefore, with regards to these points, the decisions taken at that time were logical and originated from this idea that although the existing substandard roads were not enough for the country's vital communication routes but they were parts of national assets and had to be used in an optimal manner. An Incorrect Interpretation Basically, the wrong notion that toll can be collected only from freeways has been behind many problems facing the transportation sector and the lack of logical development of road transportation infrastructures in the country. Based on a logical way of thinking, short cut routes that shortens the distance between two points of origin and destination can be leased to the private sector through legal channels and their proceeds go to other projects for expansion of other routes. By adopting such a method, a network of vital communication routes will come on stream in the country in the near future through collection of tolls. Therefore, from now onwards, making use of the investments made in the past two decades should be the basis of development projects. In other words, since the main roads constructed so far mostly were a lane of freeways designed before the Islamic Revolution, they can be considered as among the government's assets and thus put at the disposal of the private sector for construction of the second lane. In that case, renovated old routes can be used by those motorists who are unwilling to pay tolls. It is to be noted that in the event construction of a whole freeway has no technical or economic justification, the building of two lanes and collection of tolls from vehicles traveling on the two lane route is a common practice in the world and is not legally banned in our country. To shed more light on the issue, a simple calculation shows that a credit of 11,000 billion rials (according to current price) has been spent on road building during 1989-2001 period (an equivalent of 23,000 billion rials according to the fixed price of 2001). Had the private sector had made the same amount of investments or in other words invested 22,000 billion rials (46,000 billion rials according to the fixed price of 2001), 4,800 km of freeways should have been added to the country's road network. Besides, the executive bylaw of the law on implementation of development projects through partnership in the transportation sector, approved in 1987, has a major defect that has plagued the parking lot of Mehrabad International Airport. The bylaw has stipulated that the investor can get all profits he makes from duties that are levied on the infrastructure established through partnership from the beginning of operation until amortization of both capital and interest. So, by offering false reports, the investor can withhold handover of the infrastructure to the government even after exploitation period expires. This holds true for freeways. In other words, it seems that the proceeds from freeways would not be higher than those of highways as is evident in billions of rials that are spent every year from the government's general budget on maintaining roads or paying compensations to investors for losses they incur. Had we spent 11,000 billion rials on adding a lane to highways, main roads and side roads, 16,900 km of highways, main roads and side roads would have been added to the country's communication network. This figure indicates a one percent increase in the traffic index of Iranian roads which compared to the country's total area is noticeable. Note: Turnover rate has been estimated at 20 percent, cost of freeway building in 2001 at 10 billion rials, average cost of building main and side roads at 1,000 billion rials and amount of private sector's partnership at 50 percent under best possible conditions. (Barnameh Weekly, August 17, 2004)