The Commission for Air Quality Management has decided to expand the ban on old vehicles to the entire National Capital Region, effective November 1st. The ban will affect diesel cars over 10 years old and petrol cars over 15 years old.
00:00Okay, let's turn from there to the national capital, where the big story is, days after the Delhi government rolled back a ban on sale of fuel to banned vehicles,
00:09the Commission for Air Quality Management on Tuesday decided to widen the ban to cover the entire national capital region.
00:16The ban will take effect on November 1st.
00:19What it means is that diesel cars, which are 10 years old, will go off the streets, as per the government, and 15 years for petrol cars.
00:27But there are so many policy flip-flops that car owners are left disappointed.
00:33Take a look.
00:43Banned or not banned, or somewhere in limbo, Delhi's flip-flops over its end-of-life policy for vehicles has left many citizens confused, cheated, and financially burdened.
00:55Including this man, who had to sell his 88 lakh rupee Mercedes for the price of a second-hand hatchback.
01:05In 2010, Kamaljit Singh Saini bought a top-of-the-line Mercedes, a gift that matched his father's dream and the family's pride.
01:13But 14 years later, that same car was sold for just Rs. 7.5 lakh, not because it was faulty or polluting, but because of Delhi's blanket ban on diesel vehicles over 10 years old.
01:25We bought a S-model Mercedes car, and we bought a S-model Mercedes car, which was customised by Mercedes-Benz Punei, which was approximately 88 lakhs to 90 lakhs, which was paid for 15 years.
01:43And then there's Sanjay Gupta from Model Town, who bought a diesel I-20 in 2015 for Rs. 8.8 lakh, paying Rs. 77,000 in road tax.
02:06He had assumed the car had a 15-year life. But two years later, the NGT reduced diesel car lifespans in Delhi to 10 years.
02:14Fearing that his car would be scrapped, Sanjay sold it in November 2024, only to get a fresh registration certificate from the Transport Department a month later, saying his car was valid till 2030.
02:26The confusion runs deeper.
02:54After the Delhi government rolled back its end-of-life vehicle policy, people whose cars were already impounded started asking,
03:01Will we get them back? This is what the Delhi government had to say.
03:24But most importantly, the rollback only affects the fuel-based end-of-life clause, not the court-mandated CAQM directives.
03:38Which means even today, diesel automobiles older than 10 years and petrol ones older than 15 years remain illegal on Delhi's roads.
03:46These cars can't run now.
03:51These cars, because of our Vahan portal, these cars are expired.
04:00And expired cars is no registration.
04:02No registration means 192 section penalty, which is 10,000 minimum starting.
04:10And it is for two-wheeler as well as for the four-wheeler, same.
04:15Policies that shift without clarity.
04:18Vehicle owners caught between rules and reversals.
04:21And crore's worth of cars sold for scrap.
04:23For Delhi's motorists, the road to compliance has become an expensive and emotional ride.
04:30Bureau Report, India Today.
04:31So does the ban on old cars reduce pollution, as is now being claimed?
04:40Old vehicle ban, should there be a rethink?
04:43Why is the ban limited to Delhi and its suburbs?
04:45Should it be a national ban, if at all?
04:48I'm joined by two guests for quick comments, because we are short on time tonight.
04:52Anumita Roy Choudhury's Executive Director, Centre for Science and Environment, focuses a lot on traffic.
04:56And Chetan Bhutani is Associate Editor of Business Today, also looks at the auto industry closely.
05:01But first you, Anumita, how do you interpret this?
05:05We've seen so many flip-flops.
05:07The government says, first, we are not going to allow fuel to be given to cars that are old beyond 10 and 15 years.
05:12Then it's forced to reverse it.
05:14Now it's saying November 1st is the new deadline.
05:17Are these flip-flops, if you can hear us?
05:21Because, okay, before Anumita apparently can't hear us, why don't you take that, Chetan, explain to us why are these old cars far more polluting than a swanky new diesel or petrol car?
05:35As deep, you know, correctly pointed out, these old cars are really contributing to about 28% of the entire PM 2.5 levels in Delhi.
05:44Indeed, the major contributors to the pollution in Delhi constitute about 30% coming from industries.
05:50Construction dust from 17%, road dust 15%, biomass burning 7%, and domestic sources 3%.
05:56And this is a report I'm quoting from the Terry ARAI report.
05:59Well, the main reason for these polluting is, of course, the commercial vehicle fleets that need to be weeded out first.
06:06However, after the public output, I remember, Rajdeep, you were hearing the agreed consumers because the road tax that they paid was for 15 years, whereas their vehicle was weeded out after 10 years.
06:17So a big financial burden came out to those consumers as well because not everybody is in a position to financially pay out a 10-year-old car and eventually buy a new car or a second-hand car for themselves since a car is of a very valuable asset in Indian household society.
06:33But to answer your question, Rajdeep, are old vehicles dirtier?
06:35A BS1 diesel vehicle, which is a pre-2005 vehicle, emits 28 to 30 times more of a PM 2.5 versus a BS6 vehicle, which we currently drive on Indian roads.
06:46So to answer your question, Rajdeep, yes, older vehicles do emit, you know, pollution.
06:51But yes, there are a lot of policy flip-flops that the central government, the state government, and the consumers have to be dealt with.
06:58Let me take those policy flip-flops.
07:01Anumita Rohit Choudhury, your quick comment.
07:03Do you believe that it's necessary to phase out all old cars by law, by diktat, in the manner now that the government intends to do come November 1st?
07:12No, Rajdeep, so while I believe that older vehicles need to be addressed for fleet renewal so that you can replace very old and end-of-life vehicles with new, clean, and zero-emission vehicles, but the method has to be different.
07:29The sweeping ban, age-based ban, blanket ban is not going to work at all.
07:36So we already know, and there are systems, that you need to identify the most polluting end-of-life vehicles and then weed them out.
07:47And therefore, the whole system needs to be based on merit of emission performance and fitness, and wherever needed, selective ban along with incentives.
07:57That has to be the strategy.
07:59So while we...
08:00So you're saying, are you saying you can't have a fixed age that 10-year-old cars, 10-year-old diesel will be beaded out, 15-year-old?
08:07You're saying case-by-case basis?
08:08How will the government be able to do that?
08:11Yes, so for instance, for commercial vehicles already, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has already notified the rule that the commercial vehicles will have to undergo mandatory testing
08:24in automated testing stations that are being set up across the country, and also it has been set up in Delhi.
08:31And there, they should identify, based on those tests, what are those end-of-life and unfit vehicles.
08:38But yes, the criteria for defining end-of-life for private vehicles is still not that clear, and we need those systems.
08:47But then also remember that it's just not taking the vehicles only to the testing stations.
08:53The Supreme Court in 2018 had already directed the Delhi government and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to institute the system of remote sensing monitoring,
09:06which goes beyond the current POC test, which means you don't have to take your car somewhere to get it tested.
09:13But as you are driving on the road, the machines by the roadside will monitor you, and those pilots have already happened in Delhi.
09:21But now rules have to be notified for doing that.
09:24So a lot of smart people...
09:25But ma'am, you know, the worry is that what car drivers are worried is that they will get caught in a near-bureaucratic maze.
09:33What happened a week or so ago, cars were being impounded, and fuel was being denied to those with old cars.
09:41Now, can you do it by diktat in that manner? Is that the way forward?
09:44That's not feasible with such a large number of vehicles.
09:49And also, technically, it is also not even advisable that you cannot continuously keep taking 10-year-old and 15-year-old out from Delhi, Gurgaon, Pardabad, Ghaziabad, and dump them in other regions.
10:03So you have to find other ways.
10:05And we know from the evidence that it is not all vehicles.
10:10It is the selected vehicles which contribute disproportionately to the high pollution.
10:16So now, see, when you do not have a system in place, then ban remains your only weapon to address the problem.
10:24But not in this age, not in Delhi.
10:27When we have the rules, we have the system.
10:29The state-of-the-art testing stations have already been set up in Delhi.
10:33Finally, pilots on remote sensing have happened.
10:36Why can't we go for smart?
10:38One is the smart one.
10:38So would you say, in conclusion, annual testing of every vehicle being made mandatory, annual testing, you pass the test, you can carry on with the car, you don't, that's it?
10:48Especially after a certain age.
10:50Then you make the test more frequent.
10:53Also do a lot more on-road emission monitoring.
10:55But more important, you should also have a disclosure policy on the way the vehicles have been tested and their results.
11:03Otherwise, you may do tests and then through the continuous process of retest, you end up passing almost all vehicles.
11:11The system also has to work.
11:13So systems, smart monitoring, transparency, digitization and disclosure.
11:18That has to be the way forward.
11:20Anumita Raj Chaudhary, for joining us there.
11:23I hope someone in the Delhi government is listening.
11:25All these flip-flops have only, in a way, undermined public confidence in the system.
11:30Chetan and Anumita, appreciate you joining me.
