Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 14
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Three hundred thousand old cars were scrapped in Iran in a ceremony in Tehran.
Massoumeh Ebtekar, head of Iran's Environmental Protection Organisation, said that the administration pays special attention to reduce air pollution in the city, Iran's Fars news agency reported on March 14.
She added that cars which do not meet euro-4 standards will not be numbered in the next fiscal year, which begins on March 21.
Meanwhile, the public transport fleet should be renovated, she said, adding that 30 percent of vehicles in the fleet are old.
As another measure, the use of mazut in power plants will be banned in the next year, she noted.
Iranian First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said on Feb. 21 that 30 million Iranians are affected by air pollution.
Jahangiri cited measures in recycling old cars and importing hybrid vehicles as examples of good efforts made to reduce air pollution.
Tehran and other major Iranian cities have been hit by air pollution several times over the past months and old cars count for a major portion of the pollution.
He maintained that the government has no major plans underway on constructing dams or roads that would go without preliminary environmental studies.