Blog 40_Tehran, you're fired!

If cities were alive like human, Tehran would be at the edge of being fired from a top-job.

The Iranian government is considering to relocate the country's capital because they say Tehran is "in danger of being struck by a major earthquake", says the BBC.

Tehran has been Iran's capital since 1795. It is located close to the Alborz mountain range and has a population of about 12 million.

The suggestion of replacing capital is, in fact, not new. But this time, the expediency council - a powerful state body- has approved plans by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to "fire Tehran". The question now is: where is the Iranian capital moving to?

According to the report by Penny Spiller, there is speculation indicating that the new capital should be built between the holy city of Qom and Delijan, in Markazi province. The area has not seen an earthquake in 2000 years.

Although the decision seems to make sense, sceptics find the timing of the decision a bit suspicious. It has not been long since some of the worst anti-government riots happened in Iran, and to be more precise, in Tehran.

"It is tempting to view anything going on in Iran these days through the lens of that dispute," Dominic Dudley, deputy editor of the London-based Middle East Economic Digest, told the BBC. "It certainly wouldn't hurt the government to move away from the big centre of liberal protests and opposition."

He said that Tehran is a popular place for liberals, and it was many of these liberals who ran on the streets to protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory a few months ago. On the other hand, Qom is the spiritual home of Iran's conservative Islamic establishment. Dudley said that moving the capital closer to Qom can be seen as a step closer to conservative rulings.

But it takes magic to move a capital overnight. Andrew Jones of the engineering, planning and architectural design firm AECOM said in the report that it usually takes 10 to 20 years to build a new capital from scratch, and it takes a century of more to "mature into something that is an attractive and self-sustaining place." he said.

Though difficult, it is not impossible. Brazil moved their capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia almost 50 years ago and that was a successful example.

Picture courtesy of the BBC