New Delhi: After March 31, vehicles older than 15 years, which are not allowed to ply in Delhi and parts of NCR, will be refused fuel at the city’s petrol pumps. This measure, among several pollution control curbs, was discussed by Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa during a meeting with officials of the Environment Department on Saturday.
In addition to restricting fuel supply to overage vehicles, Sirsa announced that all high-rise buildings, hotels, and commercial complexes in the capital must install anti-smog guns to curb air pollution levels.
Delhi has a little over 1 lakh end-of-life vehicles. Petrol vehicles over the age of 15 and diesel vehicles over the age of 10 years have not been allowed to run in the city for the past several years. These vehicles can be sold in other states after procuring No-Objection Certificates.
After the meeting, Sirsa said, “We have decided to stop giving fuel to vehicles older than 15 years after March 31, 2025. A team will be identifying such vehicles.”
Giving details about the implementation of the new rules, a senior official of the Delhi government said many fuel stations in Delhi have already installed AI-enabled cameras to check violations of pollution under control (PUC) certificate rules.
“These cameras currently detect vehicles that do not have a PUC certificate, and the fuel pump staff denies fuel to such vehicles. We can also use these AI-enabled cameras to detect the age of particular vehicles. For this, we need to upgrade our system,” the officer added.
He said the fuel pumps that currently do not have such devices will have them installed soon.
Sirsa also hit out at the previous AAP government for not taking the problem of air pollution seriously and not utilising funds. “We tried to find out what the diseases are and their cures. The last government didn’t take a step to reduce water and air pollution. This meeting was about air pollution. The funds were unutilised. They were given thousands of crores that are unissued,” he said.
The meeting, which went on for over three hours, was called to discuss only issues related to air pollution.
“There are three subjects: dust pollution, vehicle pollution, construction pollution. We don’t have an idea about vehicles coming from outside. We wanted sprinklers… We are roping in DU students for a plantation drive. We are identifying big organisations causing pollution, we are directing them to check it through gadgets. New forests will come up at barren lands,” he added.
The government also plans to phase out nearly 90% of CNG-driven public transport buses in Delhi by December 2025, replacing them with electric buses to promote cleaner and more sustainable transport. According to the Delhi government, 11,000 buses, including around 8,000 e-buses, will be procured by 2026.
Sirsa said the procurement of 3,680 e-buses will be completed by September this year to encourage people to use public transport for their daily commute.
During the meeting, the minister was informed that around 7,600 buses, including 2002 e-buses, are plying in Delhi, another official said.
(with PTI inputs)
