Delhi govt mulls e-challans for violators of pollution certificate norms

Section 190(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act makes it mandatory for vehicles to have PUC certificates. The owner of a vehicle plying without a valid PUC certificate is liable to be prosecuted

New Delhi The Delhi transport department is planning to penalise vehicle owners who have not renewed their pollution under control (PUC) certificates by checking their PUC status at fuel stations through cameras which are linked with the mParivahan software, officials aware of the proposal said on Wednesday.

According to an analysis by CSE in November last year, vehicles are the biggest contributor to local particulate matter in Delhi. (Representative image/iStockphoto)

Violators will receive e-challans, on the lines of challans which are sent for speeding, the officials said.

Section 190(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act makes it mandatory for vehicles to have PUC certificates. The owner of a vehicle plying without a valid PUC certificate is liable to be prosecuted and may be imprisoned for up to three months or fined up to ₹10,000, or both.

Delhi has 966 PUC checking centres, where the tailpipe emission standards of the vehicles can be checked by paying a nominal fee. According to transport department data, around 1,700,000 active vehicles in the Capital do not have a valid PUC.

Last week, transport officials held a meeting with prospective technology providers to explore the feasibility of e-challans for non-compliance of pollution norms.

Officials said the idea behind using the fuel stations for the enforcement is to ensure a check on a maximum number of vehicles — all vehicles must visit fuel stations for refilling.

Another official said the mechanism at the fuel stations will be based on automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) technology. “The ANPR based mechanism can operate using CCTV cameras. Fuel stations already have CCTV cameras installed, which can be connected with ANPR technology and can work using the mParivahan database. Challans can be issued in seconds,” the official said.

“With some technology interventions, these cameras can be linked with ANPR mechanism,” the official said.

Officials said a detailed project report will be prepared, before it is put before the government for consideration and approval.

Ajay Bansal, president of All India Petroleum Dealers Association, said, “It is a welcome move by the government, and the petroleum dealers will support the move. It will create awareness among people about vehicular pollution and encourage them to keep a valid PUC.”

Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy) at Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said smart monitoring is needed for stringent enforcement to improve compliance with the PUC programme and ensure all vehicles undergo tests. “But at the same time we need very strong monitoring of the PUC testing centres themselves to ensure credible tests are being conducted. Simultaneously, upgrade the emissions monitoring system with remote sensing etc for effective monitoring of real driving emissions on the road and to catch the worst polluters,” Roychowdhury said.

According to an analysis by CSE in November last year, vehicles are the biggest contributor to local particulate matter in Delhi. The government launches crackdowns on polluting vehicles from time to time — especially during the winter months — to make people aware that the PUC certificate is a mandatory document.

Transport minister Kailash Gahlot said, “Under the leadership of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, the transport department is working to make transportation pollution free. The government is working on decarbonising public transport by introducing electric buses, at the same time the department is also focused on checking vehicular pollution by forcing the vehicles to comply with pollution norms. The department is exploring necessary technology to force vehicles to get timely PUC done.”