On Monday, the Supreme Court directed the transport departments of the Delhi-NCR region to “immediately announce” that petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles older than 10 years will not ply in the region. How many such vehicles ply in the NCR, and how are owners expected to go about scrapping them?
No policy yet
Delhi alone has around 38 lakh vehicles that fall in this category. These, however, are just the number of vehicles registered with the Delhi Transport Department. There are no figures for how many of them are still plying in Delhi-NCR. These vehicles must either be sold outside Delhi-NCR where they are allowed to ply, or be scrapped and recycled.
India’s Vehicle Scrapping Policy, however, has remained under discussion and planning for at least three years now. In August 2015, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said, “We are bringing such a scheme that if you sell your old vehicle you will get a certificate which on being produced at the time of new purchase will get you a discount of up to Rs 50,000. For small vehicles like cars, it will be up to Rs 30,000. Besides, there will be exemptions in taxes and total benefits for big vehicles like trucks will be up to Rs 1.5 lakh.”
Earlier this year, Delhi’s Transport Department also issued orders to scrap old and unclaimed vehicles. Under this policy, individuals who want to get their vehicles scrapped have to get clearance and a certificate from the area Motor Licensing Officer.
A public service undertaking, MSTC, and Mahindra Motors have started an automated vehicle scrapping and recycling unit in Greater Noida.
Abroad, incentives on offer
The Delhi rules do not offer any incentive for people to scrap old vehicles to buy newer, cleaner ones. Among other countries, the United States and the United Kingdom both came up with policies in 2009 to encourage people to scrap old, fuel-guzzling vehicles with new ones. The aim was two-pronged — to boost sales in the motor industry and to tackle emissions.
In the US, the programme was called “cash for clunkers” and offered people between $2,500 and $4,500 to scrap older vehicles that gave mileage up to 7.7 km per litre. The programme ran for 8 weeks.