Urban Public Transport Fleet to Expand With Electric Vehicles

Providing decent public transportation services is of high importance worldwide and there is much room for improvement in Iran, a senior official says. 
Mehdi Jamalinejad, the head of Iran's Municipalities and Village Administrators Organization affiliated to the Interior Ministry, noted that around 20,000 buses are operating in urban transport network nationwide, a large share of which is dilapidated, ISNA reported.
“To provide a well-functioning transport system, an additional 35,000 vehicles are required,” he said, adding that negotiations are underway with domestic automakers for supplying new buses.
Noting that manufacturing electric buses, as an alternative to gas and diesel buses, is also on the agenda, the official said that in Tehran, municipal officials are planning to add 50 e-buses to the transport fleet.
“Experts say this requires 1.6 trillion rials [$6.6 million], which is to be supplied by the Plan and Budget Organization within a week,” he said.