Delhi has 3 million old and ‘invalid’ petrol vehicles. Three options for owners

Delhi has around 13.4 million registered vehicles of which 42% are ‘invalid’ because these are either more than 10 years old - in the case of diesel engine, or more than 15 years old in the case of petrol engine. In fact, there are three million petrol-powered vehicles in the city that are beyond the permissible limit of operation. These figures emerged from an analysis done by the transport department of Delhi, as reportedly by Hindustan Times.

The transport department had previously de-registered over one lakh vehicles as these were beyond the age limit prescribed for petrol and diesel vehicles. Also called ‘end of life’ vehicles, such vehicles are not just not allowed to operate in the city but cannot even be parked in public spaces.

Of the total 13.4 million registered vehicles in Delhi, the analysis shows that around 7.7 million vehicles are ‘active’ which shows that these have not yet hit their respective age limits and are deemed fit to operate here. But there also is a large number of petrol vehicles that are more than 15 years old.

Owners of such vehicles have several options available. Perhaps the most commonly used option is to get a no-objection certificate from the state transport department and sell the vehicle to a buyer in another state. This option is also open for those who own old diesel vehicles.

The other, perhaps more ambitious, option is to retro-fit a model with an approved electric kit.

The third option is to send the vehicle to an authorized scrappage facility. In such a case, the owner of such a vehicle can look forward to various incentives if and when he or she chooses to buy a new vehicle.

The bottom line though is that if you own a vehicle that is designated as old by the rules, it would be against the law to make use of it and so, any of the above three options could be made use of.