Transportation and Fuel Organization plans to decommission 19,000 old vehicles by the end of the current Iranian year (March 19, 2016).
In the past seven years, only 1,200 heavy vehicles have been scrapped. However, during the five-month period ending August 22, 2015, 8,000 heavy vehicles were taken off the road, said the deputy manager of the organization.
"We intend to keep up this pace," Mojtaba Shafiei said, noting that the pollution emission of each heavy vehicle equals that of 12 dilapidated passenger cars.
With that formula in mind, "since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started March 21), 107,000 vehicles have been decommissioned, 26,000 of which were passenger cars".
Additionally, 3,500 minibuses, 1,001 buses and 3,483 trucks were also decommissioned during the same period, he added.
Depending on the vehicle, owners are compensated for their old vehicle in cash. For each passenger car decommissioned, owners receive 25 million rials (approximately $732 at the market exchange rate). Each truck and bus is equivalent in worth to 12 passenger vehicles; if any such cars are decommissioned, the owners receive 320 million rials (approximately $9,400).
Minibuses and pickup trucks weighing over 2 tons are each equivalent in worth to four and two passenger cars respectively and are compensated accordingly.
Dilapidated diesel vehicles are energy-inefficient, due to high exhaust emissions that causes disastrous environmental harm.
The insecurity of dilapidated heavy vehicles is also the main cause of several fatal road accidents. All this costs the country several billion dollars annually, according to the government.
