NGT’s Latest Order to See 70% Trucks off the NCR Roads

In its quest to make National Capital Region (NCR) a less polluted place, National Green Tribunal (NGT) has summoned road and transportation authorities to de-register 10 year old diesel commercial vehicles. If implied, the order would see almost 70 percent of the goods carrying vehicles junked. The decision has caused a stir among fleet owners and state authorities and a clarification has been sought from the apex court of India.

Out of around 1.30 lakh diesel cargo commercial vehicles, 90,000 units have to be de-registered and from 13,000 diesel passenger commercial vehicles, 11,500 will see the junkyard. It would deeply impact the supplies including essentials like milk and vegetables and city-transportation too. Also, according to the RTO records, 900 ambulances out 1,200 would be declared unfit to continue the services.

NGT has also asked the government to scrap the diesel vehicles older than 15 years. For doing so, DDA has been asked to provide a land for parking of impounded vehicles. The tribunal also criticized the central government over the dull response while implementing the counter measures across the city. It said, “You haven't done anything. The truth is that you don't want to do anything. The ground reality is that the government machinery doesn't want to work at all.”

Commenting on the decision, Mr. KK Dahiya, Special Commissioner, Transport Department, said, “There are directions by the Supreme Court too regarding diesel vehicles. These will be juxtaposed with the NGT order, and clarifications sought before a plan of action is worked out.” NGT is, however, firm on making NCR a less polluted place. The tribunal had summoned 2.83 lakh diesel vehicles to get off the road earlier this year, out of which 1.61 lakh were private vehicles.

Once scraping and impounding is done, the CV industry will definitely see a boost in sales as replacement demand will surge drastically in the NCR region.