No impounding! Temporary relief for these vehicles in Delhi: Details
Just a couple of days after enforcing a ban on refueling old vehicles, the Delhi government has decided to pause its End-of-Life (EOL) vehicle policy. Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa announced on Thursday that the city would not impound vehicles under the new rule until further notice. This comes after public criticism and opposition outrage over the sudden rollout of the measure.The policy, which came into effect on July 1, aimed to restrict fuel supply to diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years in an effort to curb vehicular emissions in the capital. However, in a press briefing, Sirsa acknowledged that the system had several unresolved issues that needed attention before full implementation.Citing technological challenges, Sirsa said that the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras installed at fuel stations were not working as intended. He pointed to problems such as malfunctioning sensors, difficulty in reading High Security Registration Plates (HSRP), and lack of integration with vehicle data from surrounding NCR regions like Gurugram, Faridabad, and Ghaziabad.
According to VAHAN data, Delhi has more than 62 lakh End-of-Life vehicles, including 41 lakh two-wheelers and 18 lakh four-wheelers. Many of these continue to ply on city roads despite being officially deregistered. Sirsa emphasized that the government remains committed to reducing pollution but does not wish to inconvenience citizens through hasty enforcement.He further proposed that any such ban should be based on actual pollution levels rather than just the age of the vehicle. Sirsa added that unless the rule is applied uniformly across the entire NCR, it would be ineffective, as vehicle owners could easily bypass the restriction by refueling in neighboring cities that currently have no such policy in place. (Inputs from PTI).
