E-Paper
Ghaziabad transport dept suspends registration of 81k vehicles
In the first move of its crackdown against erring vehicles, the city’s regional transport department has suspended registrations of 81,773 petrol and diesel vehicles
In the first move of its crackdown against erring vehicles, the city’s regional transport department has suspended registrations of 81,773 petrol and diesel vehicles in compliance with the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) July 2016 directions. Officials said that the figure includes 75,293 petrol and 6,480 diesel vehicles.
Officials said the decision was taken as a measure to reduce air pollution ahead of the winter, in addition to complying with the tribunal’s direction. According to the terms of suspension, the owners of the vehicle have been given an option to get no-objection certificates (NOC) and have their vehicles registered in 34 identified districts in the state. The list includes 64,549 two-wheelers and 10,709 four-wheelers.
“The notices for suspension of registrations have been issued on Friday. The vehicle owners have six month’s to obtain NOCs from the transport department and get their vehicles registered in other districts. We have suspended the registration of vehicles presently under the ‘25’ registration series. The vehicles whose registrations have been suspended are those that were registered up to December 31, 2000, and more such vehicles will be suspended soon,” said Vishwajeet Pratap Singh, additional regional transport officer (administration).
The NGT had, in Delhi-NCR, banned plying of petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles older than 10 years. The district at present has around 9.5 lakh vehicles registered.
“This is first piece of action we have taken so far. Such vehicles found plying on roads will be deemed illegal and are liable to be seized. We have also stopped registration renewals for such vehicles,” Singh, added.
The list of districts include cities like Amethi, Hathras, Etawah, Jaunpur, Gonda, Ballia, Siddharth Nagar, Lakhimpur and Hardoi among others, which have fewer vehicles registered and are outside the National Capital Region.
According to the department’s 2,854 registrations of 10-year-old diesel vehicles were cancelled between April 1, 2018 and July 31, 2019, besides seizing 406 and issuing NOCs for 3,271 vehicles.
The records also state that more than 15-year-old 88 petrol vehicles were seized in the same period, and registrations of 170 vehicles were cancelled, and NOCs issued for 1,174.
The issues for erring vehicle owners will compound as the Ghaziabad Development Authority has awarded a work order for the Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) which has features to detect violations, besides number plate readers to detect erring vehicles. Officials said 10-year-old and 15-year-old vehicles can also be identified through the ITMS.
“The system will be put in place soon and a control room will be set up to monitor live feeds. The entire project will be implemented in phases and will be complete within nine months,” said Kanchan Verma, GDA, vice chairperson.
