Gurgaon halts registration of diesel vehicles

The Gurgaon administration has halted the registration of new diesel vehicles till March 31 and will stop issuing fitness certificates to existing ones, deputy commissioner TL Satyaprakash said on Saturday.

The Gurgaon administration has halted the registration of new diesel vehicles till March 31 and will stop issuing fitness certificates to existing ones, deputy commissioner TL Satyaprakash said on Saturday.

The administration has also told diesel cab owners to switch to CNG before January 31.

“As directed by the Supreme Court, we have decided to ban diesel vehicles in the district,” said Gurgaon deputy commissioner TL Satyaprakash.

The move, which aims to gradually phase out all diesel vehicles from Gurgaon roads, comes after the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority directed seven districts of Haryana and UP last week to stop registering autorickshaws, taxis and buses that run on the cheaper fuel with immediate effect. EPCA’s directions followed a recent Supreme Court ruling on diesel vehicles.

Around 12,464 diesel and 707 petrol cabs ply in Gurgaon every day. In the absence of an efficient public transport network, the city depends on autorickshaws -- out of the 22,162 registered autos in Gurgaon, 11,245 run on CNG and 10,917 on diesel.

“We will stop issuing fitness certificates to all existing diesel vehicles from here on,” Satyaprakash said.

Earlier, an order issued by the Haryana transport commissioner banned the registration of diesel luxury cars of 2000 CC and above in the state’s NCR districts till March 31. “It is requested that all the concerned under your control should be impressed upon to adhere to the directions given by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in letter and spirit,” the order dated December 21 said.