Tehran’s ailing public transportation will soon get a boost with hundreds of new buses and minibuses joining the fleet, Tehran Municipality’s deputy director for traffic and transportation affairs said.
Manaf Hashemi added that 120 buses and 130 minibuses are to join Tehran’s public transportation fleet.
“The vehicles are to be delivered by local carmaker Iran Khodro as per an agreement signed in mid-August between Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi and IKCO’s CEO Farshad Moqimi,” he said.
According to Hashemi, the contract is worth 4 trillion rials ($12.5 million).
“Tehran Municipality made a down payment for the new vehicles last week and IKCO promised to start delivering buses and minibuses in a month. The first delivery of 22 new vehicles is due early November,” he added.
As per the contract, IKCO is to deliver 100 Euro-4 diesel buses with catalytic converters, 20 Euro-6 buses running on liquid petroleum gas and 130 high-quality minibuses.
Besides the contract, the two sides had also signed a memorandum of understanding on the production of 800 more vehicles by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2021). This initiative is to be financed jointly by the government and TM.
Based on the MoU, the carmaker has agreed to deliver 300 minibuses and 500 buses, 100 of which will be electric and 400 will run on CNG and diesel.
Hanachi said Tehran faces huge shortcomings in its public transportation system and the new vehicles will partially fill the gap.
He acknowledged the government’s timely help and hoped collaborations between TM and the state automaker will expand.
IKCO has expressed readiness to strengthen bilateral ties, saying there are no worries about production capacity.
Moqimi said the company’s bus production line has resumed work after a decade-long halt. He added that IKCO and its five affiliated firms will produce the agreed number of vehicles with full capacity.
New Restoration Scheme
To help overcome the challenging task of overhauling the dilapidated urban bus fleet in the country, the Ministry of Industries has stepped in.
Mehdi Sadeqi Niyaraki a deputy industries minister, recently met representatives of the ministries of interior and roads, and Tehran Municipality, discussing the necessity of streamlining the passenger fleet that has outlived its usefulness.
Based on the multilateral agreement reached in the meeting, 2,000 urban buses will be overhauled under a long-term scheme.
According to the arrangements, half of the dilapidated buses will be from Tehran and the rest will come from other metropolises.
Niyaraki emphasized that the scheme will help mobilize the potentials of domestic automakers and the Plan and Budget Organization is committed to financing the plan.
Streamlining the ailing public transportation system in Tehran has long been a point of concern for the city’s urban managers.
Last year in July, TM signed an agreement with Omid Entrepreneurship Fund to allocate 12.5 trillion rials ($39.06 million) in cheap loans for the expansion of public transportation system in the capital.
Replacing smog-inducing motorcycles with electric bikes, expanding biking facilities, providing vehicles with pollution absorbents and high-quality catalyst converters, and upgrading air quality monitoring equipment were also on TM’s agenda.
Additionally, in mid-June 2019, 13 buses and 117 minibuses produced by domestic automakers, such as Iran Khodro, Bahman Khodro and Sabalan Khodro, were inducted to upgrade the aging public transportation network of Tehran.
Last summer, TM announced that it started restoring 500 dilapidated buses that have outlived their usefulness.
“Inefficient public transportation fleet is one of the worst problems afflicting the residents of Tehran. Addressing the issue is high on the municipality’s agenda,” Hanachi said at the time.
While such positive measures are gaining momentum, they are not effective because of the growing number of dilapidated buses plying the streets of Tehran.
According to Tehran Bus Company, 6,500 buses are operating in the transportation fleet of Tehran, more than half of which are dilapidated. This is while the capital needs at least 9,000 buses to offer decent transportation services to the public.
Economic Headwinds
Considering the economic hardships facing Iran due to the reimposition of US sanctions, the renovation of transportation fleet has become difficult.
The price of new passenger vehicles and eco-friendly motorcycles has seen a threefold jump, just like any other commodity.
After US President Donald Trump reneged on Iran’s nuclear accord and reimposed sanctions against Tehran last summer, the Iranian rial lost almost 70% of its value over the past year.
On Monday, the US dollar was traded at 320,000 rials in Tehran while it hardly fetched 42,000 rials in March 2018.
Following the reimposition of sanctions, many foreign suppliers of vehicles and parts suspended collaboration with Iranian firms. The country cannot afford to import new buses in large numbers and local manufacturers do not have an adequate volume of parts to boost production.
These factors have derailed schemes for overhauling the transportation fleet. However, with the help of the government and automakers, urban planners are devising solutions to implement these schemes.
The commitment of officials concerned and the timely allocation of funds will ensure these efforts yield the desired result.
