BS-I, BS-II oil tankers can’t enter Delhi from today, orders green tribunal

NGT on Thursday asked oil companies to top using BS-I and BS-II vehicles to transport petrol in Delhi.

The National Green Tribunal on Thursday asked oil companies to immediately stop use of BS-I and BS-II vehicles to transport petrol or petroleum products into Delhi.

The National Green Tribunal on Thursday asked oil companies to immediately stop use of BS-I and BS-II vehicles to transport petrol or petroleum products into Delhi. (PTI File Photo)

The Bharat Stage or BS norms are standards for vehicular emissions with BS-I and II suggesting the earliest generation of emission norms while BS-IV stands for the latest of these norms.

Hundreds of old BS-I and BS-II tankers presently operate on Delhi roads.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar on Thursday gave this order to Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum, who have to immediately ban such vehicles from their fleet.

The green court has also Delhi Police to ensure the compliance of the order. However, traffic police said they are yet to receive the NGT orders.

The NGT had in December last year issued notice to the oil companies and asked them to inform if they use any diesel vehicles more than a decade old to transport petrol or diesel to fuel stations.

The direction on Thursday came while hearing a batch of petitions filed by various contractors asking for registration of new BS-IV compliant diesel vehicles purchased to transport petrol from company depots to identified petrol pumps in Delhi-NCR.

On Wednesday, in what can be termed as a blow to automobile companies, the Supreme Court had banned sale and registration of vehicles which are not BS-IV compliant from April 1 when the new emission norms come into force.