NEW DELHI: The road transport ministry on Friday issued a draft notification proposing to stop the renewal of all government vehicles which would attain 15 years April next year. This will pave the way for mandatory scrapping of such vehicles, which TOI had reported on January 26.
According to the draft notification, the proposed change will be applicable to all such old vehicles owned by Central and state government departments, local governments including municipalities and panchayats, State Transport Undertakings, PSUs and other autonomous bodies under the Central and state governments.
TOI on Friday had reported how all such vehicles will be the first slot to be compulsorily scrapped and how the motor vehicle law empowers the road transport ministry to decide the life of a vehicle and specify the age beyond which the registration cannot be renewed.
While chairing a review meeting on the progress of the proposed vehicle scrapping policy on January 14 Prime Minister Narendra Modi had directed the road transport ministry to come out with the norm for mandatorily scrapping of government vehicles which are more than 15 years, which was first reported by the TOI.
Sources said though the number of such vehicles owned by the government won’t be huge, the decision will send a message about how the Centre would give a big push for voluntary phasing out of old and polluting vehicles. They added the ministry will soon come out with more notifications to operationalise the scrapping policy, which was announced in the Budget.