New Delhi
Society of
Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the apex automotive industry body,
organised a virtual webinar on Vehicle Scrappage Policy 2021: Its Features and
Implementation Planning.
The webinar saw
industry stalwarts and experts discuss the policy framework, best practices in
material recycling, Extended Producers Responsibility and models related to the
environmentally sound management of ELVs recycling. They also spoke about the
roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in devising a roadmap for
transitioning to a circular economy.
Shrikant
Deshmukh, Chairman, SIAM Recycling & Materials Group and GM,
Mercedes-Benz India Pvt Ltd, gave a comparative perspective of ELV recycling by
the EU and Japan. He advocated for the extended producer responsibility model
and emphasised the importance of shared responsibility among all stakeholders.
Amit Varadan,
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, and the Chief Guest
for the webinar, said, “There are more than one crore old vehicles, which lack
fitness certificate and can be scrapped. It will improve road and vehicle
safety, environment, fuel efficiency and boost auto sector sales by 30%. The
policy could generate 35000 jobs while saving maintenance costs for customers
and manufacturing costs for OEMs. From April 2023, heavy commercial vehicles
will be mandated to undergo the test at authorised fitness testing centres. The
rest of the commercial vehicles will be mandated to undergo tests from August
2023. We propose that 70-100 fitness testing centres be set up all over India.”
Paresh Goel,
Director, Ministry of Road Transport & Highway, outlined the salient
features of the Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility, (Scrappage Policy) 2021.
He shared the rules for automated testing centres, covering the owners’ eligibility,
authorisation processes, infrastructure and manpower requirements, testing
procedure, and audit process etc. He explained that citizens can book for
testing their vehicles from anywhere in India, and Government will launch an
electronic portal to book fitness tests for vehicles soon.
Other speakers
at the webinar included M S Anand Kumar, Co-Chairman, SIAM Recycling &
Material Group and GM, TVS Motor Co., Masaru Akaishi, MD, Maruti Suzuki Toyotsu
India Pvt Ltd, Mr Som Kapoor, Partner (Automotive Sector), Ernst & Young,
Meenakshi Sundaram, CTO, Amalgamations Component Group, Anand Kumar, Additional
Director, CPCB and Sanjay Mehta, President, MRAI.
Source – SIAM Press Release
Image Source: Photo by Evan Demicoli on Unsplash
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