Overage petrol and diesel vehicles won't get fuel in Delhi from this date

Overage petrol or diesel vehicles in Delhi will not be able to refuel from fuel pumps in Delhi after March 31. In a move aimed at combating air pollution in the national capital, the Delhi government has announced that from April 1, fuel pumps in the city will not sell petrol and diesel to overage vehicles. This means that the owners of petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles older than 10 years will not be able to purchase fuel from fuel pumps in the national capital.

Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa announced this decision after a high-level meeting with the government officials. He stated that fuel pumps in the national capital would be equipped with devices to identify overage vehicles and restrict selling fuel to them. "We are setting up gadgets at our petrol pumps that will identify vehicles older than 15 years. They will not be provided fuel," Sirsa said.

Delhi currently has around 500 fuel stations. Also, according to rough estimates, there are around 55 lakh overage vehicles in the city. Two wheelers account for 66 per cent of that fleet, while 54 per cent are four wheelers.

This move comes in an attempt to curb vehicular emissions and put a check on air pollution in Delhi, which has remained a persistent challenge for the city's residents and government. The minister further said that the Delhi government would inform the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas about the decision and the ministry would, in turn, notify the fuel pump owners.

AI-powered cameras to detect age of vehicles

Vehicular emission has been accused of being a major contributor to the severe air pollution in Delhi. Several fuel stations in Delhi have already installed Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered cameras to identify the vehicles violating the pollution under control certificate (PUCC) rules. These AI-powered cameras detect vehicles that do not have PUCC and give a notification to the fuel pump. Based on that, the fuel station staff deny selling petrol or diesel to such vehicles. The government is now mulling the plan to use these AI-powered cameras to detect the age of the vehicles. News agency PTI has quoted one of the Delhi government officials stating that the government is planning to upgrade the system for this.

The Delhi government will also deploy teams to identify overage vehicles and ensure they are either prevented from entering the city or removed if already present. This decision of the Delhi government aligns with a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that banned diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years from plying in Delhi. A 2014 National Green Tribunal (NGT) order prohibits parking of vehicles aged over 15 years in public areas.

Strict measures for public transport fleet

Besides taking stringent measures for private vehicles, the Delhi government is also planning to phase out nearly 90 per cent of CNG-driven public transport buses in Delhi by December 2025 and replace them with electric buses. The Delhi government has stated that it will procure 11,000 new buses, including around 8,000 electric buses by 2026.

Sirsa said that procurement of 3,680 electric buses will be completed by September 2025. Currently, around 7,600 buses, including 2002 electric buses, are plying in Delhi.

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