Policy to scrap 15 year-old vehicles almost finalised, says Nitin Gadkari

India will soon come out with a policy to scrap vehicles which are more than 15 years old, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.

The policy aims at curbing rising vehicular pollution in the country.

“We have almost finalised the scrapping policy for vehicles with the NITI Aayog,” Gadkari, Union minister for roads and transport, said.

Gadkari said India is bound to become the hub for automobile industry, and production costs could be cheaper as scrap could be used for production of autoparts, among other things.

“Raw material for vehicles will be cheap... plastic, rubber, aluminium and copper - all materials generated from scrap will be used for autopart generation,” the minister said.

Earlier, the road, transport and highways ministry had sent a concept note on Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Programme (V-VMP) to the Committee of Secretaries on creating an ecosystem for voluntary scrapping and replacement of old polluting vehicles.

The V-VMP policy proposes to take 28 million decade-old vehicles off the roads.

Gadkari had earlier said that the PMO is keen on the proposal and once it is implemented, pollution will reduce considerably as 65% of the pollution is caused by heavy vehicles that are more than 15 years old.

As per an earlier proposal, a relief of about Rs 5 lakh was to be provided to people who purchase new commercial vehicles of about Rs 15 lakh, if they surrender their over 15-year old commercial vehicles.

Gadkari has said that once the proposal is accepted it is bound to result in Rs 10,000 crore boost in tax revenue as the automobile sector will benefit from it.

The draft Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Programme (V-VMP) policy has proposed to bring under its purview about 28 million vehicles bought on or before March 31, 2005.