Over 2,000 vehicles fined in 4 days for violating pollution curbs

The traffic police and the transport department penalised as many as 2,008 vehicles between December 4 and 7 levied a fine of ₹20,000 per vehicle for violating the ban on petrol BS-III or diesel BS-IV vehicles imposed by the Delhi government to keep the city’s air quality in check, said officers aware of the matter

The traffic police and the transport department penalised as many as 2,008 vehicles between December 4 and 7 levied a fine of ₹20,000 per vehicle for violating the ban on petrol BS-III or diesel BS-IV vehicles imposed by the Delhi government to keep the city’s air quality in check, said officers aware of the matter.

Vehicles on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway amid low visibility due to smog on Saturday. (ANI)

According to an action taken report prepared by the transport department and seen by HT, “A total of 145 vehicles were challaned by transport department enforcement teams and 1,863 vehicles were challaned by traffic police officers in different parts of the Capital.”

The challans were issued under Section 179 of t he Motor Vehicles Act.

All petrol BS-III and diesel BS-IV were banned from city roads between December 4 and December 7 as part of anti-pollution measures under Stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) imposed by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). The bans were triggered after the air quality index (AQI) deteriorated to the ‘severe’ category.

Just three days after the ban was imposed, the AQI improved, prompting CAQM in the National Capital Region (NCR) to revoke all measures under Stage-III of the Grap. The ban on vehicles was then lifted.

An official said while the largest number of vehicles fined were BS-IV ones, many BS-III vehicles were also caught and fined. “A total of 446 BS-III vehicles were fined while 1,562 BS-IV vehicles were fined by the transport enforcement teams and the Delhi Traffic Police,” said the official.

A transport enforcement official said vehicles are stopped based on their registration numbers. “The teams get a fair idea about the year of registration from the registration number, which have multiple series based on different years. Such vehicles are stopped for checking. The teams ask the drivers to show registration certificates of the vehicles, which reveals the vehicle’s details. All the challans have been issued after physical checking of the vehicles’ details and no cameras are used in penalising BS-III and BS-IV vehicles,” the official said.

The official added that the challans can be paid by the owners of vehicles by depositing the fee at the transport department headquarters in case the challan has been issued by the transport department, or by visiting traffic police headquarters at Todapur, or in court.

The CAQM invokes emergency measures under Grap-III after Delhi’s AQI deteriorates to the “severe” category – air quality between 401-500 is considered severe. State governments in the National Capital Region have an option to enforce such a ban when Stage-III is triggered.

There are currently as many as 0.3 million BS-IV diesel four-wheelers registered in Delhi, while there are 0.2 million BS-III petrol vehicles.