Nitin Gadkari urges carmakers in India to promote vehicle scrapping

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has once again urged carmakers in India to promote vehicle scrapping to phase out old vehicles in order to curtail pollution and encourage buyers to purchase new ones. Addressing an event on Monday, the minister said that old vehicle scrapping offers a win-win situation for all stakeholders as it will help promote sale of new vehicles and recycle the old ones. The Centre had earlier implemented a comprehensive vehicle scrapping policy to phase out vehicles more than 15-20 years old to reduce vehicular pollution.

India is yet to have enough number of vehicle scrapping units to phase out old vehicles. Carmakers like Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors have already launched their vehicle scrapping units across the country. Gadkari had earlier said that carmakers and dealers should come forward to set up such facilities to expedite the process.

Gadkari has urged vehicle manufacturers to bring more investment to set up such facilities to scrap old vehicles as well as make owners aware of the benefits of Centre's vehicle scrapping policy. "Auto industry is the biggest beneficiary of this policy, they must come forward and support three main pillars," the minister said. He has also urged carmakers to set up automated testing stations across the country.

The union minister had earlier said that vehicle scrapping policy will increase automobile sales by 18 per cent. He believes that using the raw materials sourced from scrapped vehicles will save 33 per cent cost on raw material procurement and increase new vehicle sales by 18-20 per cent. Also, he believes that this policy will play a key role in making India a global automobile manufacturing hub.

The Vehicle Scrapping Policy introduced for the first time in August 2021, focuses on phasing out old and unfit vehicles across India in order to reduce the vehicular pollution level as the older vehicles are known for polluting the environment more than the newer models. This policy aims to de-register private cars that are aged more than 20 years and commercial vehicles aged more than 15 years.