NEW DELHI: After the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered the removal of all decade-old diesel vehicles from the roads of the National Capital Region (NCR), Union Ministry for Transport and Delhi Government are almost ready with a proposal under which the vehicles older than 15 years are likely to be scrapped shortly. In the last briefing of Lieutenant-Governor review meeting, Delhi government informed about Vehicle Scrapping Policy.
On Thursday, Union Transporter Minister Nitin Gadkari asserted that they have almost finalised the scrapping Policy. This would lead to the scrapping of vehicles older than 15 years. Though Gadkari declined to divulge further details, it has been learnt that the government is considering tax benefits for scrapping 15-year-old vehicles. For this it may approach the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council. The Delhi government is also planning to come out with a policy scrapping passenger cars older than 15 years.
The government has been working on formulating a vehicle scrapping policy to reduce fuel-guzzling and polluting old models, to recycle and bring down the cost of components and to make transport green and cost-effective. "We have a Rs 4.5 lakh crore automobile industry. The scrapping of old vehicles would fetch us plastic, rubber, aluminium, copper and steel. The waste coming out from scrapping units in ports and automobile clusters would bring down the cost of raw materials and spare parts. This would boost our exports," Gadkari said.
The government has been planning to scrap all Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles (MCHV), which account for 2.5 per cent of the country's total vehicles but contribute over 60 per cent of the air pollution.
Initially, the Union government may propose a voluntary vehicle modernisation programme followed by a regulation determining the life of vehicles. It may provide incentives to vehicle owners like payment of scrap value and discount from auto majors at the time of purchasing a new vehicle after scrapping the older one.
Vehicular pollution is the major cause of air pollution. The emissions from the vehicles contribute to rising levels of toxic carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and particulate matter.