100,000 old vehicles to be deregistered to curb pollution in Noida

NOIDA: The Noida transport department has started the procedure to deregister about 100,000 diesel and petrol vehicles older than 10 and 15 years, respectively, to check pollution.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), in a 2015 order, has banned petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles older than 10 years in the national capital region (NCR). In October 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the NGT order and directed that such vehicles be impounded.

AK Pandey, assistant regional transport officer (ARTO), Gautam Budh Nagar, said there are 775,000 registered vehicles in Gautam Budh Nagar.

“We found that there are about 110,00 diesel and petrol vehicles that are over 10 and 15 years old. We conducted an enforcement drive and impounded 34 petrol vehicles and 48 diesel vehicles. We issued fines of ₹10,000 each to about 276 violators for not being able to show us Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates,” he said.

Pandey said that the transport department is issuing notices to the owners of these old vehicles to surrender their registration papers. “They should scrap the old vehicles and inform the transport department. We will deregister these vehicles from our records. If people are found driving such vehicles, action will be taken against them,” he said.

Ganesh Prasad Saha, deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Gautam Budh Nagar, said that the traffic department is also conducting enforcement and awareness programmes to check pollution.

“This month, we seized 233 diesel and petrol vehicles that are older than 10 and 15 years, respectively. We also deployed traffic police personnel at different fuel stations to compulsorily check vehicles’ PUC once people visit for fuel. The vehicles lacking PUC certificates are fined ₹10,000,” he said.

Traffic police personnel have been deployed at the NoidaDelhi borders to stop the entry of heavy vehicles in Delhi till November 21, as per the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) directions. On Tuesday, it directed that schools, colleges, and educational institutions in the NCR will remain closed until further orders.