Loans amounting to 200 million rials ($6,897) will be granted for replacing Paykan taxis this year (started March 21), said head of the Transportation and Fuel Management Organization, Mohammad Ebrahimi.
Last year, the organization signed a MoU with car manufacturers and banks to replace dilapidated cars. The plan will be implemented in the current year, reports Donya-e-Khodro website
The Tehran Taxi Organization was tasked to renovate 4,000 Paykan taxis last year (ended March 20) but only 3,600 taxis were renovated due to financial constraints. There are still 6,200 dilapidated Paykan taxis in the city, of which 2,000 are parked on streets awaiting retrofits.
Ebrahimi said all dilapidated Paykan taxis must be replaced by January 2016, after which they will be scrapped or phased out.
He also pointed to hybrid taxis that will soon start plying city roads.
License plates of each scrapped taxi will be placed on one hybrid car.
Hybrids have better fuel economy and cleaner emissions. These cars are equipped with two engines, one gasoline fueled with Euro 5 standards, and the other electric that can be used on roads with heavy traffic. They are said to cause very low air pollution.
