The Netherlands Airport Consultants (NACO) has released its latest designs for Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport City (IKAC) as part of a plan to turn the remote outpost into an air-and-land free trade zone, according to information posted on social media on April 1.

IKAC was planned more than a decade ago, but due to the imposition of sanctions and the slowness of foreign companies in looking to work with Iran the project has hit several buffers. The pace of progress has increased in recent years with the second terminal, named Salam, near completion and the Tehran Metro now connecting to the airport, albeit only during daylight hours.

The company said in an announcement on its website that the plan to develop the project would take several years. IKAC, it added, would be built in phases with work on the Iran Shahr (Iran City) international terminal commencing in the next year.

Imam Khomeini Airport, located 25 kilometres south of Tehran, is undergoing a $2.8bn expansion. The ambition is to one day make it a Middle East/Central Asia airport hub that can compete with Persian Gulf hubs. When completed, its new terminals should be able to hanlde 20 million passengers per year.

The masterplan for IKAC includes the creation of a 1,500-hectare free trade zone and a 2,500-hectare special economic zone within a 13,700-hectare area surrounding the site.

“Defining the first phase of the airport city while ensuring a flexible and easily phasable development plan was our key focus. We ensured that all of the different elements of our work were explicitly included in all development proposals while keeping the short term and long term development objectives in mind,” the company said

The airport has faced several setbacks in recent years. French airport development firm Bouygues pulled out last summer apparently due to financial and political issues. But Iran’s Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan dismissed that claim, Iran Labour News Agency reported. “Cancellation of the agreement was by no means related to banking restrictions,” he reportedly said at the time.

The minister said the deal was cancelled in spring by the Iranians because the French firm was failing to keep up with the schedule.

Bouygues was meant to work with NACO, but, the Iranian side said, neglected to communicate with the Dutch. “NACO immediately held a tender [to replace the French company] and dozens of international companies participated. We will soon choose a qualified company,” Fakhrieh-Kashan said.