The 350-hectare university is built on one of Tehran's most dangerous faults.
The director of the Earthquake Department of the Road, Housing and Urban Development Research Center says that the Science and Research Unit of Azad University is located on a 350-hectare land area and has about 45,000 students, professors and other staff on the fault north of Tehran.
This government official says that when this university unit began operating in 1984 with 250 students, the law prohibiting construction within the fault zone had not yet been promulgated.
However, over the past years, the space of this Dangshah has continued to expand on the northern fault line and is set to soon host 50,000 students.
Ali Baitollahi told ISNA News Agency, "We have approved and notified the fault boundaries for several metropolitan cities such as Tehran, Tabriz, and Kerman, meaning that these approvals are enforceable in the form of law."
Mr. Baitollahi says that the Azad University's Research Sciences Unit is completely at fault: "I strongly recommend that [Azad University officials] consider the necessary measures to reduce the risk, because the area where the university building is located is an accident-prone area."
The North Tehran Fault is the largest fault in the capital, located in the southern slopes of the Alborz Mountain Range.
Source: Radio Farda
