Auto industry to help govt to establish scrappage centres, testing infra: SIAM

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has said the auto manufacturers will work with the government to help create infrastructure needed to implement vehicle scrappage policy such as fitness testing centres and scrappage facilities.

Hailing the policy, the industry body added that the policy benefits the environment and enhances safety by removing unsafe or unfit vehicles from the roads. "The most important step is to build an infrastructure of testing and scrapping centres fast all over the country and SIAM will work on this front with the government," it said.

SIAM plans to engage with the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways in order to work with it on greater details of the scheme such as the best way to expedite testing infrastructure in a sustainable and scalable manner. It also looks at the possibility of beginning the fitness testing of private vehicles much earlier in the life cycle, as is done in developed countries.

Further, the industry body aims to engage with the government on the scope of mandatory fitness-based de-registration versus voluntary incentive/disincentive based scrapping.

Vehicle scrappage policy, formally announced by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday has been termed as a "win-win" policy that will help improve fuel efficiency and reduce pollution. It includes mandatory scrapping of over 15-year-old government vehicles starting from April 2022.

Private vehicle older than 20 years and commercial vehicles that are over 15 years old will have to undergo compulsory fitness tests in order to legally ply on roads. Any vehicle failing the fitness test or failing to get a renewal of its registration certificate may be declared as End of Life Vehicle.

Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) has also applauded the scrappage policy and its guidelines, saying that it is step in the right direction. He added that it now depends on the state governments and OEMs to collaborate and make it successful.

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