Delhi de-registers over 53 lakh vehicles since 2018. Is your car next?

Driving an old vehicle beyond the permissible time limit is banned in Delhi and the transport department here has been cracking down against such and against heavily-polluting vehicles. According to a PTI report, over 50 lakh vehicles have been de-registered here till October 17 and a bulk of these are those that are powered by petrol and diesel engines and older than 15 and 10 years, respectively.

Citing data from the transport department, the report highlights that around 53.38 lakh vehicles have been de-registered in the capital city between 2018 and October 17 of this year. The data further shows that of these, over 46 lakh vehicles were powered by petrol motors but were found to be older than 15 years. Another 4.15 diesel vehicles too were taken off the roads as these were older than 10 years.

The de-registered vehicles are not legally allowed to ply on Delhi roads any longer. While this could potentially help decongest city roads and give impetus to new purchases, the move is primarily aimed at ensuring that polluting vehicles do not contribute to the falling air quality standards here. It is the Supreme Court that had ordered for all petrol vehicles older than 15 and diesel vehicles older than 10 years to be banned here.

For anyone with a vehicle that is beyond these permissible age limits, the options are only a few. One can obtain a fitness certificate from an authorized center to continue driving the said vehicle but the process may be expensive. The Vehicle Scrappage Policy can also be benefitted from where one can choose to scrap an existing vehicle and thereby gain incentives on new vehicle purchases.

At present, Delhi has over 13.4 million vehicles with around half of these deemed ‘active.’ The number of motor vehicles in the country's capital city is significantly higher than all other metropolitan cities.