Crackdown begins on old diesel vehicles
NEWDELHI: In five days, the Delhi government has seized 55 of the 2.23 lakh de-registered diesel vehicles that are more than 15 years old. Officials in the state transport department’s enforcement team who are conducting a drive to confiscate and dismantle the old diesel vehicles, apart from prosecuting polluting ones, said on Friday that in most cases, the vehicles could not be found at the addresses.
The seized vehicles have been sent to state RUN-MSTC Limited to be dismantled.
“Out of the 2.23 lakh deregistered vehicles, around 11,000 are luxury cars such as BMWS, Audis, Mercedes’ and so on. Our plan was to start with these first, but when we went to 100 such addresses, the cars were not parked there,” KK Dahiya, special commissioner (transport), said. The 55 diesel vehicles that the department’s enforcement team seized are primarily vans, and small-sized hatchback cars. “But, our teams are fining and impounding vehicles for not having Pollution Under Control Certificates (PUCCS), for overloading good vehicles and those which are visibly polluting,” he said.
Until 8pm on Friday, the department issued a total of 1,944 challans for not having PUCCS, while 2,719 were issued to visibly polluting vehicles.
HSRPS AND STICKERS FOR OLD VEHICLES FIRST
The transport department announced on Friday that it would first ask owners of vehicles registered between January 1, 2011, and April 30, 2012, to begin fixing the high-security registration plates ( HSRPS) along with hologram-based coloured stickers.
According to transport officers, about 5 lakh private vehicles were registered during this period. On October 11, Hindustan Times reported that the government was planning to roll out the plan in phases due to the huge volume of vehicles in the national Capital.
TEAM LEAVES FOR CHINA FOR ELECTRIC BUS STUDY
Half of a four-member team, to be led by transport minister Kailash Gahlot, left for a tour of China on Friday night, till October 21, to understand electric bus models and the supplementing infrastructure in the country. The tour has been planned because the Delhi government is going to buy 1,000 e-buses which are likely to be rolled out in phases from June next year.
“While the commissioner (transport ) won’t be going, due to personal reasons, two transport officials — special commissioner and deputy commissioner — left on Friday night. Gahlot, at whose residence the Income Tax department has been conducting raids, is likely to join in a day or two,” an official said, on the condition of anonymity.