Delhi government announces ‘No fuel to 15-year-old vehicles’ Starting 1st April

Delhi government has announced that it will stop providing petrol to vehicles older than 15 years at fuel stations across the city after March 31.

The move aims to reduce the pollution in the national capital region, which has been struggling with the deterioration of air quality.

Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who took charge earlier this week, stated that the government is taking stringent steps to bring down vehicular emissions in the city. “We are installing gadgets at petrol pumps which will identify vehicles older than 15 years, and no fuel will be provided to them,” Sira said, adding that the Union Ministry of Petroleum will be informed about this decision.

Moreover, the ban on 10/15 year old motor vehicles in Delhi and the NCR has been effective since December 2016. Now the newly appointed Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa of Delhi, has announced that vehicles older than 15 years will not be provided fuel at petrol pumps from March 31. To ensure clean air (the AQI touches 400-500 during winter months) restrictions on older vehicles, mandatory anti-smog measures, and the transition to electric public transport were among the issues discussed.

This initiative follows a report from the CAG, which indicated that of the 47.51 lakh ‘End of life’ vehicles that needed to be deregistered during 2018-21, only 2.98 lakh were actually deregistered. This represents a small fraction (6.27%) of the ELVs, leaving a staggering 93.73% (44.53 lakh) still registered as of March 2021.

To enforce the policy, the government aims to utilize AI-enabled cameras at fuel stations to identify vehicles that are not compliant. These cameras, which are presently employed to verify Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates, may also be enhanced to check the age of vehicles.

Furthermore, he said nearly 90 per cent of the public CNG buses in Delhi will be phased out by December 2025 and replaced by electric buses as part of the government’s push towards cleaner and sustainable public transport.

Nischal Singhania, the president of the Delhi Petrol Dealers Association, welcomed the move and said, “Vehicles older than 15 years are already banned in Delhi by the Supreme Court.” “We already have apparatus to detect vehicles without pollution under control (PUC) certificates and I think the same system can be used to detect vehicles older than 15 years,” he said.