TEHRAN – Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami says the renovation of the country’s road transportation fleet is going to increase the number of vehicles able to transit goods to other countries to 100,000, IRIB reported.

Speaking in a ceremony for unveiling a portal for registering in the renovation program, Eslami 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 due to the high average age of the road transportation fleet, a large number of the national fleet are not able to transit goods to other countries.

“Currently, the average age of our road transport fleet is 19 years, and we hope that with the implementation of this plan and scraping of the vehicles over 40 years of age, the average life of the fleet will be reduced to 14.5 years,” Eslami said.

According to Eslami, the modernization of the transportation fleet, in addition to improving the country’s transit capacity, will save the country 530 million liters of fuel worth nearly $960 million.

The official noted that in order to accelerate the implementation of the plan, 25 domestic companies are going to participate in the program and foreign vehicles under three-years of age will also be considered to replace the old fleet.

Domestic companies can participate in renovation of up to 1,000 vehicles a year, while large-scale companies are also allowed to purchase and import up to 100 foreign vehicles to renovate their fleet, he said.

Eslami further mentioned an agreement signed between the Transport Ministry and Iran Khodro Diesel Company (IKDC), based on which the owners of 863 trucks with an age over 55 years have been notified to register in this system so that after approval they can immediately change their cars through IKDC.

EF/MA