TEHRAN – The Ministry of Interior is going to formulate an executive mechanism for modernizing the country's public transport fleet, in collaboration with the Oil Ministry, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), and the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry, Shana reported.

The decision was made at a meeting of the government's economic coordination headquarters held on Tuesday.

Speaking in the meeting, President Hassan Rouhani noted that the country's economy was able to withstand severe shocks resulted from sanctions and the pandemic due to the proper investments made in strengthening and developing infrastructure in the past two years and the country is on the verge of returning to the path of stability and growth.

Referring to the need to modernize and develop the country's public transport fleet, Rouhani underlined the necessary measures that should be taken for providing the required parts for public vehicles, saying: "To achieve the goals of the country's comprehensive transportation plans and to provide desirable services to citizens, the country needs to add new fleet.”

Further in the meeting, the solutions proposed by the Ministry of Interior regarding the modernization of the country's public transport fleet were discussed and it was decided that according to the mechanisms provided, the public transport fleet would be renovated by supplying parts and also by adding new buses to this fleet.

Back in February, the Iranian transport and urban development minister had said that the modernization of the country’s transportation fleet should continue in the form of a smart movement and bureaucratic processes should be minimized in this regard.

“The transport ministry has fulfilled all its commitments regarding the completion of a comprehensive transport system.” Mohammad Eslami said.

In September 2019, the Iranian deputy transport minister said the National Development Fund (NDF) of Iran allocated $1.6 billion for renovating the country’s transportation fleet.

“Upon President Rouhani's directive, National Development Fund will soon provide nearly $1.6 billion to renovate the transportation fleet,” Shahram Adamnejad said in a gathering of the country’s professional transport organizations.

EF/MA