Government announces details of vehicle scrappage policy

Context

The Government recently announced the details for the country’s long-awaited vehicle scrapping policy.

About the Policy

• The policy, which also recommends the mandatory scrapping of all government vehicles over 15 years old, applies only to four-wheeled vehicles.
• Deregistration: Commercial vehicles be deregistered after 15 years in case of failure to get the fitness certificate.
  • As a disincentive measure, increased fees for fitness certificate and fitness test may be applicable for commercial vehicles 15 year onwards from the date of initial registration.
  • The private vehicles are deregistered after 20 years if found unfit or in case of a failure to renew the registration certificate.
  • All vehicles of the Central Government, State Government, Municipal Corporation, Panchayats, State Transport Undertakings, Public Sector Undertakings and autonomous bodies with the Union and State Governments may be de-registered and scrapped after 15 years from the date of registration.
• Incentives: The scheme shall provide strong incentives to owners of old vehicles to scrap old and unfit vehicles through registered scrapping centres, which shall provide the owners with a scrapping certificate.
• Scrapping Facilities: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will promote the setting up of Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities (RVSFs) across India and will encourage public and private participation for the opening up of such centres. Efforts are also being made to set up integrated scrapping facilities across India.
  • Some of the identified places include Alang( globalcentre for shipbreaking) in Gujarat, where it is being planned to develop a highly specialized centre for scrapping among many other potential centres, where different scrapping technologies can be synergized.
    

Significance of the Policy:

• The move is expected to reduce pollution, create job opportunities, through the registered scrapping centres, and boost demand for new vehicles.
• The Indian automobile industry has already upgraded to one of the most advanced emission standards. While new vehicles will be least polluting, old vehiclesthat create enormous pollution with the least safety standards will now be eligible for scrappage thus making roads safer and air cleaner.