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Weekly Lists
September 21, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
bne:
Infrastructure
Baltics clear another hurdle on the road to syncing their power grids with rest of EU
Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport City set to open second terminal in two months
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania won approval for the technical project to synchronise their power grids with the rest of the European network, the Lithuanian government said on September 14.
The Baltic states’ power grids are still part of the IPS/UPS grid area that is essentially a remnant of the Soviet Union, of which the Baltic states were a part until the early 1990s.
Since 2004, three grid links have been built to enable electricity flows between the Baltic states and Poland, Sweden, and Finland in order to end the Baltics’ status as an “energy island”. However, in terms of frequency and other technical aspects of grid functioning, the Baltic networks are still part of IPS/UPS, controlled by Russia.
Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport City (IKAC) has announced that its second terminal, dubbed “Salaam” (“Peace”), will open in two months, Aviation Iran has reported.
It was originally planned that Salaam Terminal would be the de- parture point for pilgrims flying to the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia, taking over from Mehrabad Airport in the centre of the capital. However, in recent months local media reports have suggested that most of the airport’s international flights may be operated from the terminal, while renovations and expansion work are undertaken at the main terminal, a facility that is more than 15-years-old. Sepa- rately, a new passenger airport opened to the west of Tehran earlier this week for domestic flights.
The first tolls were paid on the Durres-Kukes motorway without incidents on September 17, after the initial trial introduction of the first ever toll road in Albania sparked protests by local citizens back in March.
Drivers will pay a toll of €5 on the motorway that leads to Kosovo. The concessionaire has rebuilt and constructed new toll booths after angry protestors demolished most of the infrastructure during the violent protest at the end of March.
During the protest, Albanian police arrested 23 people from Kukes for violence against police officers, which angered the opposition and sparked civil disobedience. In a move to defuse the situation citizens of Kukes will now pay only ALL100 (€0.8).
Albania opens first road toll following failed attempt in March