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Non- BS-IV compliant vehicles won't be registered from April 1

From April 1, 2017 vehicles not meeting Bharat standard -4 fuel guidelines will not be allowed to ply in the National Capital Region even if it is registered under the national permit.

With low-quality diesel considered to be one of the major reasons for pollution in Delhi –NCR, the decision has been taken to phase out vehicles mostly trucks and buses running on poor quality diesel.

The decision to phase out vehicles not running on BS-4 has been taken Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA).

Sluggish demand "due to demonetisation" has hit the plan to phase out non-BS-IV emission compliant vehicles by April, a major automobile manufacturers' body on Friday claimed inviting EPCA's ire which said the industry is "holding Delhi to ransom".

EPCA's reiteration of its last year's order invited sharp reactions from SIAM which termed it as "unreasonable".

The two sides argued over the direction at a meeting convened by the EPCA here. However, EPCA asserted there will be no relaxation in its order.

A SIAM representative claimed, going by the current market demand, there will be around 20,000 passenger vehicles, 7,50,000 two-wheelers, 45,000 three-wheelers and 75,000 commercial vehicles like trucks in April that do no meet BS-IV emission norms.

"Market forces are beyond our control. Demonetisation has also hurt us badly. EPCA is being unreasonable considering we were told about the plan only last October. It is a complex thing and we need time," K K Gandhi of SIAM said.

CSE chief Sunita Narain, a member of EPCA, said no relaxation will be allowed in this regard in NCR. However, whether or not these vehicles can be registered outside NCR will be explored, EPCA said.

"They (the industry) is holding Delhi to ransom," Narain said, rejecting SIAM's submission that the IIT-Kanpur report had shown that diesel vehicles were responsible for "merely two per cent of Delhi's pollution".

However, the same report had also pointed out that vehicles contribute to around 20 per cent of air pollution in Delhi, among the world's most polluted cities.

EPCA Chairman Bhure Lal sought "month-wise data of productions and sales registered by the industry body between April and December last year" to gauge the situation.

BS-IV fuel contain 50 parts per million (ppm) Sulphur.
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