by S S Rana & Co. – Leading IP Attorneys & Advocates

The rising air pollution in the major cities of the country is a major health and environment  concern with 65% of total air pollution caused by older commercial vehicles plying on road.  To arrest this issue, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is slated to scrap vehicles  older than 20 years under the vehicle scrappage policy or voluntary vehicle fleet modernization  program, first mooted in 2016.  

A scrappage policy is a government-funded programme to promote the replacement of old  vehicles with modern ones. A vehicle scrappage programme is usually intended to stimulate  the automotive industry as well as taking obsolete and more polluting vehicles off the road. It proposes to remove old commercial vehicles off the road and moot creation of an ecosystem  to promote scrapping and recycling. 

The policy is expected to considerably impact environmental sustainability and give thrust to  automobile sector by creating new demand. The policy can be viewed as an extension of NGT  ruling for Delhi-NCR whereby diesel vehicles older than 10 years were ordered to stop plying  on the road. Similar policies have been implemented in countries like US, UK, China,  Indonesia etc. to drive auto industry and reduce pollution. 

Key Provisions of Draft Policy: 

Continue reading “India Vehicle Scrappage Policy – A Perspective”