‘No fuel to 15-year-old vehicles’: Delhi government announces anti-pollution measures

Restrictions on older vehicles, mandatory anti-smog measures, and the transition to electric public transport were discussed in the meeting

To curb Delhi's pollution levels, environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Saturday announced that vehicles older than 15 years will not be provided fuel at petrol pumps from March 31.

Apart from fuel supply restrictions, all high-rise buildings, hotels, and commercial complexes in Delhi will be required to install anti-smog guns to curb air pollution levels. (ANI)

Announcing several anti-pollution measures, Sirsa said that the newly formed BJP government is taking stringent steps to curb vehicular emissions and pollution. Restrictions on older vehicles, mandatory anti-smog measures, and the transition to electric public transport were among the issues discussed.

“We are installing gadgets at petrol pumps which will identify vehicles older than 15 years, and no fuel will be provided to them,” Sirsa said, adding that the Union Ministry of Petroleum will also be informed about the decision.

Apart from fuel supply restrictions, all high-rise buildings, hotels, and commercial complexes in Delhi will be required to install anti-smog guns to curb air pollution levels.

“There are some big hotels, some big office complexes, Delhi airport, and big construction sites in Delhi. We are going to make it mandatory for all of them to immediately install anti-smog guns to control pollution at their places. We are going to make it mandatory for all the high-rise buildings in Delhi to install smog guns. We are going to make it mandatory for all the hotels in Delhi to install smog guns. Similarly, we are going to make it mandatory for all the commercial complexes,” Sirsa told reporters after the meeting.

The minister also announced that nearly 90 per cent of the public CNG buses in Delhi will be phased out and replaced by electric buses by December 2025.

Delhi Petrol Dealers Association President Nischal Singhania welcomed the announcement on fuel restrictions. “Vehicles older than 15 years are already banned by the Supreme Court; they can’t ply in Delhi. We already have systems where we capture the number plates of vehicles, and the system was used only to give alerts to customers who don’t have a PoC setup. I think the same system can be used to capture the number of vehicles which are 15 years old,” he told PTI.

Sirsa also said that the BJP government will get permission from the Centre to implement cloud seeding and induce artificial rain whenever air pollution levels spike in the national capital.

Severe air pollution in the national capital was one of several issues on which the ruling BJP and the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) targeted each other during the 2025 assembly election campaign.

While the BJP accused the former ruling party of failure to control stubble burning in Punjab, the AAP accused the Centre and neighbouring BJP-ruled neighbouring states of a lack of cooperation. “Neither the central government, Haryana government nor the Uttar Pradesh government are doing anything to control air pollution,” AAP leader Manish Sisodia said in November last year.