Thousands of old vehicles impounded in Delhi so far this year: Data

In a major crackdown on old and polluting vehicles plying on the roads of the national capital, the city government has impounded more than 8,400 vehicles so far this year, which is an increase of almost 188% from last year, as per official data. As per a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, plying of diesel and petrol vehicles older than 10 years and 15 years respectively is banned in Delhi, and the vehicles violating this order will be impounded.

As the Delhi transport department has launched a major crackdown on such vehicles plying in the city, 8,444 old vehicles were impounded in 2022-23, as per official data. The number in 2021-22 stood at 2,931 units.

The data also stated that 23,212 vehicles were found plying without a Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC) in 2022-23 as opposed to 29,570 vehicles in 2021-22. A total of 60,36,207 PUCCs were issued in 2022-23 as against 42,25,946 in 2021-22, the data showed.

The Delhi government has also been taking various other measures to crackdown on pollution levels in the city. The government has decided to continue with a ban on plying of BS3 petrol and BS4 diesel four-wheelers in the national capital till November 13, under stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

The Graded Plan is a set of anti-air pollution measures followed in Delhi and its vicinity according to the severity of the situation. Moreover, 500 additional buses will run in the capital under the "Paryavaran Bus Sewa" campaign to bolster public transport.

It had also banned construction work in public projects such as highways, flyovers, power transmission, and pipelines in Delhi-NCR. The capital's 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) worsened from 339 on Sunday to 354 on Monday. It was 381 on Saturday.