7 firms keen on setting up registered vehicle scrapping facility in state

kolkata: Seven enterprises have shown interest in setting up a registered vehicle scrapping facility (RVSF) in the state, a senior Transport official said.

The process of accepting applications will start after receiving NOCs from different state departments involved including environment, land and labour, amongst others. To address the matter and ensure a smooth process in setting up the eight to ten registered vehicle scrapping facilities across the state, a coordination meeting was conducted by the state Transport department with the other state departments involved in the process on Tuesday. Rules and guidelines to ensure that the process of setting up the RVSFs is conducted smoothly were discussed during the meeting. Generally, it takes two weeks to get the NOC from the involved departments. After which, the department will start accepting applications for the same. The state Transport department will then select the private players for setting up RVSFs across the state and give the required approval.

The state Transport department aims to establish at least 10 RVSFs across Bengal. The state Transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty had earlier said that a notice was issued for the scrap yards to be set up in the PPP model. After scrapping, the company will be issuing a certificate to the vehicle owner and when he will buy a new one, he will get a subsidy in tax of the vehicle, Chakraborty said. Kolkata has close to 2.19 lakh commercial vehicles while the state has close to 6.58 lakh vehicles that are above 15 years old. The minister also said that necessary instructions have been issued to start the process of scrapping vehicles within the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority jurisdictional area.