Close on the heels of its November 2014 ruling banning 15-year-old vehicles from plying on Delhi’s roads, the National Green Tribunal
08 Apr 2015 | 3344 Views | By Shobha Mathur
Close on the heels of its November 2014 ruling banning 15-year-old vehicles from plying on Delhi’s roads, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has banned over 10-year old diesel vehicles from the capital and its neighbouring regions in a bid to cut down on the growing pollution and toxic emissions emanating ...
This is an Autocar Pro Plus article. Subscribe to continue reading.
Close on the heels of its November 2014 ruling banning 15-year-old vehicles from plying on Delhi’s roads, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has banned over 10-year old diesel vehicles from the capital and its neighbouring regions in a bid to cut down on the growing pollution and toxic emissions emanating from automobiles.
In fact, Delhi has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons with a World Health study attributing to it the most polluted city status.
While the final NGT order will be made public in a couple of days, media reports say that a bench headed by NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar said, “We have already noticed that certain stringent measures need to be taken to ensure that residents of Delhi do not travel closer to ill-health with each breath they take. Thus, we direct all diesel vehicles, heavy or light, which are 10 years old not to be permitted on the roads of Delhi NCR.”
Vishnu Mathur, director general of SIAM, told Autocar Professional that the order will remove old vehicles from the Indian roads especially the roads where the concentration of vehicles is very very high. “Old vehicles more than 15 or 10 years usually don’t meet any norms at all. Even if they are in a good condition, they are meeting the norms that they were designed to meet in those days. So there is definitely a need to remove those polluting vehicles from the roads. The direction is right but what we need to see is the method of doing so.”
SIAM has been asking for a fleet modernisation policy which would mean basically an incentive-based voluntary policy based on incentives. This means that if an owner wants to scrap a 15- or 10-year-old vehicle, he will get an incentive for replacing it with a new one. “That kind of a scheme, we believe, will be more effective but a mandation of this kind will definitely evoke a reaction. So we as a society and government need to sit down and decide what is the best approach for removing these vehicles from the roads,” added Mathur.
Already countries such as Brazil, China and Denmark have either prohibited diesel vehicles or are in the process of doing away with them and have imposed stringent taxes on their owners for any lapses.
The NGT has also pointed out that diesel is the prime source of air pollution in Delhi. Diesel fumes have many side effects causing damage to the lungs, brain and even causing cancer. “The situation is so alarming that medically people have even been advised to leave Delhi.”
Despite its earlier order, which was passed less than five months ago, is yet to see the light of the day, NGT has followed it up with its second order that will apply to both private and commercial vehicles.
The tribunal, is slated to next hear the matter on April 10.
Ambuj Sharma, additional secretary under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, said that implementation is the concern of the police and the state road transport authority but for the auto industry it will be good because the people will be going in for new vehicles that will be environment friendly and cleaner. Implementation of such schemes fall under the Central Motor Vehicle Rules that are under the ambit of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.