TEHRAN - Iran Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization (RMTO) has signed a tripartite deal with Bank Saderat Iran (BSI) and some private companies for the renovation of the country’s suburban cargo transport fleet, the portal of the Transport Ministry announced.

The signing ceremony was held on Wednesday, August 12, in the presence of Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami, RMTO Head Abdolhashem Hassan-Nia, BSI Managing Director Hojjatollah Seyedi, and representatives of the private companies.

Under the agreement, 5,000 trucks, tow trucks, and refrigerated containers will be renovated over a 20-month period.

According to RMTO, at this stage, trucks over 50 years old are the priority for this scheme, and accordingly, the owners of such trucks have been notified by the Transport Ministry to register for the program.

The private sector has invested about 140 trillion rials (about $3.33 billion) in this project, while BSI is going to provide the owners with low-interest facilities equivalent to the 80 percent of the new trucks’ price.

According to RMTO, the country’s suburban freight transportation fleet is currently comprised of 387,000 trucks of which about 52,000 are older than 40 years.

Back in May, Transport Ministry unveiled a portal for registering in a program for the renovation of the country’s road transportation fleet.

Speaking in the unveiling ceremony, Eslami had said that 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.

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

He noted that 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.

EF/MA