Delhi govt, cops work to keep older vehicles off streets

While no challan data has been provided by the government, officials said meetings have been held on Saturday with traffic police, transport department enforcement teams, district magistrates and officials from Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad to evolve a mechanism to enforce these bans.

A day after Delhi imposed curbs on private and commercial vehicles due to deterioration of air quality, the government on Saturday sent around 3 lakh SMS messages to owners prohibited to ply on city roads under Category 4 restrictions of the graded response action plan.

Delhi’s air quality had improved to “very poor” category on Saturday with city recording an AQI of 373 at 7:00pm as per CPCB data. (Photo by Raj K Raj/ Hindustan Times)

The curbs came into force from Friday evening, when city recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 447 and the transport department issued an order stating that no trucks will be allowed to enter the national capital, exempting only electric trucks and ones using CNG. The department also imposed a ban on all Delhi-registered diesel vehicles, except those with BS-VI, as well as BS-III for petrol vehicles.

The messages to 3 around lakh owners said a penalty of ₹20,000 will be imposed if these vehicles are found on roads, a transport department official said. “As per CAQM, all the actions under GRAP BS-3 petrol and BS-4 diesel LMV has been restricted to ply on roads of Delhi as air quality being in very poor/Severe category,” the message said. “Since your vehicle is falling in above category you are hereby directed not to ply your registered vehicle on roads of Delhi...If found plying, the vehicle will be liable for prosecution under section 194 of MV Act, 1988 which entails with a fine of ₹20,000.”

While no challan data has been provided by the government, officials said meetings have been held on Saturday with traffic police, transport department enforcement teams, district magistrates and officials from NCR border districts of Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad to evolve a mechanism to enforce these bans.

The ban order came very late on Friday evening, so it took some time to mobilize the machinery, a government official said . “We held joint meeting with the Delhi traffic police and enforcement teams where it has been decided that joint teams will be stationed at 20 major border entry points in the city which witness the maximum traffic. In each district, one district transport officer has been made the nodal officer for coordinating and supervising the efforts,” the official said, seeking anonymity.

As many as 120 enforcement teams have deployed to check whether vehicles are sticking to emission standards. However, the official admitted that authorities do not have technical solutions to identify old vehicles without stopping them. The department claims to be targeting petrol pumps, border points and major intersections.

A second official said that 64 teams have been assigned at petrol pumps for ensuring compliance. “We have 28 teams on larger vehicles and 36 motorcycle bound teams under this category. They have been directed that if vehicles are more than 10-15 years old they will be directly sent for scrapping while challans up to Rs20,000 will be issued for BS-3, BS-4 violators,” the official said. The use of diesel and petrol vehicles older than 10 years and 15 years, respectively, is banned in Delhi.

A meeting was held with district magistrates of border districts who have been asked to deploy SDMs and tehsildars in this drive, a government official said. “They are also co-ordinating with their counterparts in NCR districts to ensure that trucks are stopped much before the border entry point and diverted to the peripheral expressways. Since CAQM is issuing these orders with evolving situation, the restrictions may be scaled down in coming days, but we have set in motion a mechanism to restart it any time,” the official said.

Delhi’s air quality had improved to “very poor” category on Saturday with city recording an AQI of 373 at 7:00pm as per CPCB data.

HT had earlier reported that enforcing the ban on these old cars will be a tough task as there was no mechanism to differentiate between a BS-IV and a BS-VI compliant vehicle from a distance without stopping it. An analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment in November last year said vehicles are the biggest contributors to local particulate matter in Delhi.