The first phase of the mentioned program was officially started on Monday in a ceremony attended by senior officials including Transport Minister Mohammad Eslami, Head of Iran Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization (RMTO) Abdolhashem Hassan-Nia, and the Head of Iran’s top automaker Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) Farshad Moqimi.
In the first phase of the said program, SAPCO, a major subsidiary of IKCO, is going to renovate 3,000 intercity passenger cars and hand them over to the owners by late August.
In this regard, 800 million rials (about $19,000) of bank facilities with an interest rate of four percent will be provided to the owners of old cars in order for them to purchase the new cars.
As reported, during the Monday ceremony, 250 taxis were symbolically handed over to drivers in different provinces; the number will reach 450 by February 18.
The second phase of the mentioned program will be started in late August under a new contract between the Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization and Iran Khodro.
Improving the services provided to passengers, improving the level of travel safety, reducing fuel consumption and car maintenance costs are among the benefits of implementing this program.
There are currently 28,000 intercity passenger cars active in the country with an average age of 11 years, 17,000 of which are taxis.
More than 28.846 million passengers are transported by intercity cars every year, and 51 percent of the total public suburban trips are made by this fleet.
The Iranian government has been implementing several programs for the renovation of the country’s public transport fleet in order to reduce fuel consumption and reduce air pollution in major cities.
Back in May 2020, Transport Ministry had unveiled a portal for the owners of worn-out vehicles to register in a renovation program.
Speaking in the unveiling ceremony of the mentioned portal, the minister said the government’s program for renovating the country’s road transport fleet is going to reduce the average age of the fleet to 14.5 years.
The official noted that in order to accelerate the implementation of the plan, 25 domestic companies are going to participate in the program.
Domestic companies can participate in the renovation of up to 1,000 vehicles including, trucks, buses, and taxis a year.