UP begins seizure of overage vehicles
SMOG EFFECT Move is in keeping with the National Green Tribunal’s earlier orders aimed at making the air cleaner in Delhi and around
LUCKNOW: The UP transport department on Friday began tightening the noose around over-aged vehicles in the state’s seven districts under the NCR. “We have asked the RTOs to seize diesel and petrol vehicles if they are older than 10 years and 15 years respectively if found in any of the NCR districts,” principal secretary, transport, Aradhana Shukla told HT.
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh transport department on Friday began tightening the noose around over-aged vehicles in the state’s seven districts under the National Capital Region (NCR).
“We have asked the RTOs to seize diesel and petrol vehicles if they are older than 10 years and 15 years respectively if found in any of the NCR districts,” principal secretary, transport, Aradhana Shukla told HT.
She said the action was being taken in view of the poor air quality in the region.
Additional transport commissioner (western region) Sanjay Mathur told HT over the phone from Meerut: “We have now also started seizing such vehicles from today. From tomorrow onwards, we will also start checking whether pollution norms being complied with or not by the vehicles of all kind.”
However, the vehicles registered outside the NCR will not be prevented from passing through the region even if they are more than 10 and 15 years unlike in Delhi where even the passthrough is said to have been banned.
The transport department has also started checking if any construction material being moved in a truck, tractor etc in the NCR was properly covered so that the dust particles did not mix with the air, Mathur added.
These moves are in keeping with the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) earlier orders aimed at making the air cleaner in the region that is hit by the persistent smog in Delhi and the surrounding districts causing panic among the residents. Smog causing low visibility is also resulting in more road mishaps in the NCR.
Meerut, Ghaziabad, GB Nagar, Bulandshahr, Baghpat, Hapur and Muzaffarnagar are the seven UP districts in the NCR.
Mathur said the owners of the older vehicles registered in any of the UP’s seven NCR districts were being asked to get a no objection certificate and move the vehicle to any other place beyond the NCR.
“We will neither allow operation nor the existence of any such vehicles in the NCR,” Mathur told HT from Meerut over phone. “All such vehicles are being identified for seizure,” he said.
He said the department was already issuing NoC to the owners, allowing them to move old vehicles out of the NCR after the NGT’s orders two years ago wherein the registration of vehicle older than 10 years, if dieseldriven and 15 years in case of petrol-driven, had been banned.