E-Paper
Chandigarh admn relents, removes ban on non-electric vehicles till Nov 27
Relieves anxiety of over 700 Chandigarh residents who had booked two-wheelers for purchase on Dhanteras tomorrow
Having relaxed the cap on non-electric two-wheelers twice already this year, the Chandigarh administration once again caved in to pressure from automobile dealers and consumers to remove the cap.
Following a meeting chaired by Punjab governor and UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit, the administration on Wednesday allowed limitless registration of non-electric vehicles till Gurpurb on November 27.
The decision came as a huge relief for over 700 anxious city residents, who had made two-wheeler bookings for Dhanteras, considered auspicious for buying new vehicles and property.
On October 29, the administration had stopped registration of two-wheelers running on internal combustion engines (ICE) after the target fixed for 2023-24 in the Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy was achieved. New registrations were possible only in April 2024.
This evoked widespread uproar from consumers and automobile dealers as the registrations were stalled right before the festive Diwali season. Even in the case of fuel-run four-wheelers, new registrations were not be done after their number reached 17,000, which was expected to happen in November itself.
Matter was taken by HC a day before
The Federation of Chandigarh Region Automobile Dealers on Tuesday had also filed a fresh petition before the Punjab and Haryana high court, seeking quashing of the EV policy and changes effected from time to time.
This was followed by the UT administrator summoning a meeting with top UT officials at Punjab Raj Bhavan on Wednesday morning.
Thereafter, automobile dealers were informed that the administration will not be able to review the policy until they withdraw cases filed in court. Complying, they announced their decision to withdraw all four cases filed against the EV Policy.
UT home secretary Nitin Yadav, who is also holding the additional charge of UT adviser, said they had decided to comprehensively review the EV Policy. Therefore, all registrations for ICE vehicles will remain open till November 27.
City mayor Anup Gupta, who was part of the meeting at Punjab Raj Bhavan, thanked the administrator for the relief and added that they were hopeful that the cap will removed entirely after the policy was reviewed.
The city has 10 automobile dealers who collectively sell around 20,000 non-electric two-wheelers annually, nearly 1,600 each month. During the festive season, this number surges to around 4,000 a month.
UT had rolled out its EV Policy in September 2022, applicable for five years, during which it plans to gradually stop registering conventional vehicles to dissuade people from buying vehicles that cause pollution.
In the first year, after achieving the target for 2022-23, the administration had suspended the registration of non-electric two-wheelers from February 10 to March 31, 2023.
For 2023-24, in June, UT had decided to stop the registration of non-electric two-wheelers after achieving the target of 6,202.
But after facing criticism for stringent capping, the administration in July had relaxed the target substantially, taking it to 12,076. The target was met by October 6, when UT put an immediate stop on registration of non-electric two-wheelers.
Under pressure from various quarters, the administration amended the policy once again on October 18, taking up the number of permitted non-electric two-wheelers from 12,076 to 13,685 — opening 1,609 more registration slots. But these were exhausted in just 11 days on October 29.
Since ban, 400 vehicles bought from Mohali, P’kula
During the meeting at Punjab Raj Bhavan on Wednesday, the administration also took note of the fact that city residents had been purchasing two-wheelers from Mohali and Panchkula, and vehicle dealers had been providing them temporary registration, valid for six months.
According to rough data, over 400 two-wheelers have been temporarily registered in Panchkula and Mohali since the ban on October 29. These vehicles will be permanently registered in Chandigarh in April next year.
