The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has invited comments on a draft notification that says government vehicles of over 15 years, including buses owned by State transport undertakings, cannot be registered after April 1, 2022.
The note calls for non-renewal of certificate of registration after 15 years in case of motor vehicles owned by Central government and its departments, State government and its departments, State transport undertakings, public sector units and autonomous bodies with Central and State governments, local governments such as municipalities and panchayats. Comments can be sent within 30 days.
This may be seen as part of government move on scrapping vehicles. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced this Budget that India will separately announce a voluntary vehicle scrapping policy, to phase out old and unfit vehicles.
Present norms
At present, life of such older vehicles increases if they are converted to cleaner fuels like CNG, and they pass the pollution and fitness test. Recently, the Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had said that vehicles that are retrofitted with cleaner energy fuel including CNG can be out of the ambit of scrapping policy if they pass the pollution test. Also, on the voluntary vehicle scrapping policy, Transport Secretary Giridhar Aramane had said that only those vehicles that do not pass the fitness test will be sent for scrapping. Vehicles will be tested after 15 years (for commercial vehicles) and 20 years (for private vehicles). A fiscal incentive for scrapped vehicles is in the works, which will be announced subsequently, he had added.
That said, certain states like Delhi have stricter vehicle norms driven by Supreme Court.
Age of govt buses
Meanwhile, speaking on the latest notification, which pretty much mandates scrapping for 15-year government vehicles, an official said that most of buses held by transport corporations are usually scrapped after 10-12 years as the maintenance costs shoot up.
According to the latest Road Ministry data, 56 State Road Transport Undertakings in the country held a total of 1.49 lakh buses during 2016-17 out of which 1.33 lakh buses were operated. The average age of fleet ranged from 2.96 years for Kolkata State Transport Corporation to 13.85 years for Bihar State Road Transport Corporation.
Also, at present, buses of many States are already migrating to electric vehicles, or vehicles operated with retrofitted CNG or bio-gas. That said, it is unclear as to why the Ministry notification is limited to government owned vehicles only.
Automated testing centres
Recently, SP Singh, Senior Fellow, IFTRT, had told BusinessLine that it is important to have vehicle scrapping policy linked to fitness instead of number of years. It is better to have a watertight mechanism of vehicle maintenance and pollution testing, the results of which should be relayed on a real-time basis with the government for each vehicle. Responsibility of both maintenance and pollution testing can be handed over to organised players and their systems could be independently tested by the government to ensure tamper-proof testing for vehicle fitness and pollution.
The Road Ministry has already embarked on a journey to set up automated vehicle fitness centres across States to provide for objective tests and transparent results. Under the scheme, where it provides a grant of up to ₹16.5 crore for each fitness centre and the State government provides land, automated fitness centres have been or are in the process of being set up at Lucknow, Kanpur, Delhi, Rohtak, Goa. Equipment for such fitness centres are imported as there is not enough demand in India. Suppliers include VTEQ, Spain; Opus, US; MAHA, Germany, among others.
The Road Ministry is also working on rules regarding setting up of scrapping centres, which may be notified soon.