15-year-old diesel vehicles will be first off the roads

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) said on Wednesday the Capital’s transport authorities can first phase out diesel vehicles older than 15 years before

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) said on Wednesday the Capital’s transport authorities can first phase out diesel vehicles older than 15 years before they begin to implement a more recent ban on similar vehicles older than a decade.

HT Image

The Delhi government welcomed the NGT’s latest order, saying the time given was more practical and easier to implement.

The tribunal said earlier this week that registrations of all diesel vehicles older than 10 years be revoked in Delhi, which is the 11th most polluted city in terms of foul air on the WHO’s latest list.

Though the people’s choice of fuel is diesel, which is less expensive than petrol, the exhaust fume contains much more pollutants that affect ambient air quality and human health. The tribunal’s order had put the government in a logistics nightmare as there are 283,000 registered diesel vehicles older than 10 years in Delhi alone, and the country doesn’t have any clear policy on scrapped cars, trucks and buses.

“The regional transport offices (in the national capital region, or NCR) are directed to start the deregistration process of vehicles that are older than 15 years and then move to vehicles that are older than 14 years, 13 years, and so on. The move to 10 years will be made gradually,” NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar said.

He said no “deregistered” vehicle will be allowed to ply in the NCR, which includes Delhi.

“No objection certificates (NOC) will be issued to these vehicles, so that owners can sell them outside the region. Every state was asked to identify areas where the dispersion of air is higher and vehicular density is less. The NOC to sell these vehicles will be given only for such areas,” he explained.

The tribunal clarified that all commercial vehicles with a national permit, but older than 10 years, will not be allowed to enter Delhi. They can go around the city state though, through bypass roads.

The move could trigger protests from transport associations as a sizeable number of trucks carrying supplies for the city fall in this category.

“Pollution levels in Delhi have not gone up overnight. An IIT study shows trucks contribute only 7% of the pollution in the city. When you could not control rampant leaf burning and dust pollution, why are you targeting us?” said Navin Gupta, the general secretary of All India Motor Congress.

Additional solicitor general Pinky Anand too argued that the tribunal’s order could affect the food supply chain. “I speak for the people of Delhi. Essential services will be hit and there will be chaos,” she said.

The NGT dismissed such fears, saying neither the Centre nor the Delhi government had made a single effort or policy to resolve the diesel-vehicle ban with transport associations.

The NGT had banned vehicles older than 15 years old — both petrol and diesel — in November 2014, but the order was never implemented energetically.