Almost one-third of heavy-duty vehicles and passenger buses, as well as motorcycles, plying the country’s roads are dilapidated and release toxic fumes into the air, while they hold counterfeit documents showing they have passed the mandatory technical inspections, the Department of Environment says.
Masoud Tajrishi, DOE's deputy for human environment, blamed the fraudulent move on some of the technical test centers.
"Some vehicle owners circumvent the regulations by bribing inspectors, falsifying technical inspection papers and using other fraudulent practices," he said.
The traffic police's roadside inspections have shown that over 30% of the passenger buses and commercial vehicles display technical inspection certificates that do not conform to emission standards and need heavy repairs.
Tehran Vehicle Technical Inspection Bureau started random field checks of vehicles’ compliance with the emission standards since November 2018, when Tehran Municipality launched the Air Pollution Reduction scheme in the capital.
The APR bars dilapidated two and four wheelers from plying the city’s roads. All the vehicles in the metropolis are required to undergo automotive inspections and receive a technical certificate showing the vehicle meets automotive and emission standards.
Tajrishi said many commercial vehicles, which have undergone technical inspections outside Tehran, do not meet the emission standards, since centers outside the capital implement regulations in a lenient manner.
He called on officials to set renovation plans in motion to phase out smog-inducing vehicles, especially in autumn when residents experience unusually high air pollution and temperature inversion.
Major Iranian cities, including the capital, are struggling with air pollution. To address the issue, urban entities have rolled out various pollution reduction plans
According to the latest data, Iran’s cargo truck fleet has 359,700 active heavy-duty vehicles, while the total number of intercity and urban passenger buses is unknown.
Nevertheless, implementing such measures is easier said than done, in view of the current economic hardships facing the country.
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 and the price of every commodity, including new commercial vehicles and buses, has jumped threefold.
On Saturday, the US dollar was traded at 121,000 rials in Tehran while it hardly fetched 42,000 rials in March 2018.
This has made the replacement of dilapidated transportation and commercial fleets with new imported cars too luxurious for Iran to afford.
DOE's concerns, however, do not end here. The agency has also criticized other officials for their lack of action in curbing the number of smog-inducing motorcycles in major Iranian cities.
Motorists to Take Over Tehran
Environmentalists and experts have predicted that the number of substandard and dilapidated motorcycles plying the streets of Tehran will observe a 56% jump by 2023 and exceed 2.4 million.
Data show that by the end of the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2019), of the 4 million motorcycles on the capital’s roads, 1.7 million were decrepit and contributed to the worsening air pollution.
Every 1 million motorcycles generate 286 tons of carbon monoxide, 100 tons of sulfur dioxide and 7 tons of nitrogen dioxide daily, worsening air pollution conditions in Tehran.
Considering the huge negative impact of motorcycles on the air quality of Tehran, unfortunately there is no plan to replace the smog-inducing two wheelers with new ones.
In February, DOE announced that a bill calling for the scrappage of dilapidated motorcycles was shelved by the government.
The bill required motorcycle companies to phase out an old two-wheeler for each new gasoline-powered motorbike they sell.
Although the bill was ratified by the parliament last September, local motorcycle producers, in cahoots with the Industries Ministry, forwarded a request to the legislature, requesting it to withdraw the bill. The bill’s implementation was postponed at least for a year.
Experts have called for enforcing more stringent measures for issuing technical inspection licenses, modifying standards of motorcycle production and paying more attention to electric motorbikes. However, like in many previous cases, the calls will most probably fall on deaf ears.
