Comments on: Iran to Construct Middle East’s Largest Artificial Lake in Tehran

By: Sam

Sam — Sun, 21 Jul 2013 20:41:55 +0000

Heres some new pics of the lake. It should be noted that the area of the park and lake is about 2x the size of central park in Manhattan, so if Tehran and Karaj are to fuse into one giant city or become twin cities, having a giant green space is essential. They even extended a subway station to it for easy access for residents in Tehran.

http://www.uskowioniran.com/2013/07/social-scene-at-chitgar-artificial-lake.html#!/2013/07/social-scene-at-chitgar-artificial-lake.html

In response to Mehrdad’s concern I post this video which shows there’s actually lots of beautification projects and urban art underway in Tehran.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1CgkLhdEWA

By: Sam

Sam — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 01:00:44 +0000

In reply to Karin Kloosterman.

The lake is already filed with water and opened to the public, which appear to be pretty happy with it and are picnic, jet sking, the park has a nice bike trail. In addition lots of lakefront apartments were built around it, and the government already planted an artificial forest and built a nice park adjacent to it. They even brought in Iranian Pink Flamingos into the lake. The pictures online look pretty nice.

Chitgar lake facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/ChitgarLake

Chitgar Park
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chitgar-Park/100209316797681?id=100209316797681&sk=photos_stream

By: Mehrdad Parsipour

Mehrdad Parsipour — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 13:53:07 +0000

I do not trust the fundamental research behind such development projects. As many proponents say, these projects are started just to be a potential ground for having construction contractors and then earn illegal money. This is what many organizations do. There are several large projects of this kind in Iran. I mean the projects that do not have a well-researched basis. Environmental and cultural disasters are some of the results of such projects. The examples are Lake Urmia, the biggest inland lake of Iran (Caspian Sea is the biggest of the world but is not inland) and of the biggest salt lakes in the world is one of the examples. This lake is going to be disappear from the map of Iran in a few years. This occurred because of starting a stupid project of building a bridge on the lake that made the distance of Tehran-Tabriz less. Another example is Sivand Dam in south west of Iran which put the thumb of Cyrus The Great in danger. I’m against it.
On the other hand, Tehran region needs more beautification projects to promote the urban landscape quality. The urban fabric of Tehran is so dense that it is hard to run rehabilitation and regeneration projects easily. However urban plans should be executed in environment-friendly ways. This is a must.

By: Karin Kloosterman

Karin Kloosterman — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 13:05:44 +0000

In reply to Mehrdad Parsipour. Are you for, or against the lake?

By: Mehrdad Parsipour

Mehrdad Parsipour — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 09:22:06 +0000

The land is not built at present. It has a height of about 1100 meters from sea level and also has a slope from north to south.
Tehran and Karaj (a city of about 1,300,000 people in 30-40 kilometers west of Tehran are growing fast in each others direction. It is expected that these two cities reach each other in 10-15 years, if the same growth rate continues. So the peace of land, which we are talking about, will be in the middle of a vast urban area.

By: Karin Kloosterman

Karin Kloosterman — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:45:46 +0000

I am curious to know what is on the land under the proposed lake?