Tehran – APA. The Expediency Discernment Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran welcomed an initiative to move the country’s capital from Tehran to other city because of quake threat. The initiative was put forward by Supreme Leader of the country Seyid Ali Khamenei, APA reports. The seismologists said a powerful devastating quake was expected in Tehran in near future. Professor Bahran Aghashah said choosing Tehran as a capital city was a wrong decision. “There is a probability of 8-magnitude quake in this region. I warned the government 40 years ago. If they heard my warning in that time, Tehran wouldn’t be turned into megalopolis and its development wouldn’t be out of control now”. The professor said the new capital would be built between the cities of Gum and Delijan in the central province of Iran. He said this area was not hit by the quakes for more that two thousand years.
Movement of the Iranian capital city came to agenda 20 years ago, but the plans were postponed because of quake in Bam in 2003, which killed 40 thousand people. 13 million population lives in Tehran now. The capital city was populated only with 250 000 people in the beginning of last century.