PRESERVATION: Isfahan Fights Heritage Organization over Subway Line Plans for under Historic Bridge

August 4, 2004 - The conservative Isfahan municipal government’s plan to built tracks for the city’s new subway under or alongside the historic Siosehpol bridge met with strong resistance from the country’s national heritage organization and preservationists, who said the bridge, built five centuries ago under Shah Abbas Safavid will not sustain the pressure. People are tired of the congested traffic, but they feel that the city should solve the problem by choosing another route for the subway tunnel, Isfahan-based journalist Farnaz Qazizadeh tells Radio Farda’s broadcaster Farin Asemi. Naturally, building a tunnel under the river is most costly and would take more time, but Isfahan cannot lose one of its major historic relics for the sake of subway, she adds.