Kolkata: Kolkata's iconic yellow taxis, which are integrally associated with the city's heritage, may be a thing of the past soon after the state Transport department's decision to scrap commercial vehicles more than 15 years old.
There are more than one lakh commercial vehicles in Howrah and Kolkata that are more than 15 years old. It has been found that many of them that are more than 30-35 years old are plying in the city.
In many state-run departments, namely Health and Family Welfare department, Public Works department and Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, there are vehicles that more than 30 years old. Such vehicles are found to be polluting the environment massively.
Owners of commercial vehicles that are more than 15 years old have been asked to scrap them at the earliest. Those who have already scrapped their commercial vehicles will require to deposit the necessary documents to the respective motor vehicles office.
The scrapping of old commercial vehicles will be done in three phases. In the first phase, the commercial vehicles that have been registered between January 1970 and December 31, 1999 will be scrapped.
In the second phase, commercial vehicles with registration between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2007 will be scrapped while in the third phase, those that have been registered in 2008 but have not been converted into CNG will be done away with.
The state Transport department is determined to use more CNG-operated commercial vehicles and e-vehicles to bring down the pollution level.