Delhi govt ramps up car pollution check, warns of Rs 10K fine on offenders

As Delhi braces for another smoggy winter, residents can take solace in the improving health of a notorious polluter — vehicles.

In the past one week, the national capital has seen an exponential rise in the number of pollution under control (PUC) certificates being issued for vehicles. It isn’t that vehicle owners have taken an environment-friendly turn, but they run the risk of shelling out a penalty of Rs 10,000.

According to Vinod Yadav, deputy commissioner, transport department of Delhi, on an average, 6,000 PUCs were issued everyday in the city earlier. The daily average has now shot up to 38,000.

The state government has been adopting a mix of coercion and coaxing to bring down the number of polluting vehicles in the National Capital Territory.

Residents typically receive SMS notifications from the Delhi transport department reminding them about the validity of their vehicle’s PUC certificates closer to the expiry date of the documents. But now, the messages also warn of a penalty of Rs 10,000 along with imprisonment of up to three months for non-compliance — a stark, punitive variation to a lax approach for monitoring polluting vehicles.

According to state government officials, an intensive drive for penalising vehicles (through challans) for not carrying PUC certificates started on October 7. Till October 10, 16,494 vehicles were checked and 1,466 were issued challans. Around 10 vehicles were also booked for causing visible pollution.

Yadav told Business Stand­ard that the transport department had authorised and registered PUC centres. “There are regular random checks by Pollution Level Test Inspectors to ensure that accurate certificates are being issued by the PUC centres.”

Delhi has 966 such centres spread over 10 zones. They are instrumental in monitoring vehicular pollution and certifying fitness of vehicles as per emission norms.

BS-VI fuel and pollution check

India migrated to BS-VI grade emission norms for fuel and automobiles. This was done on a priority basis to help cut down on vehicular pollution, but the exercise is yet to bear fruit since most cars and two-wheelers are not BS-VI compliant and tend to emit high levels of emissions.

Asked whether the PUC centres are capable of certifying BS-VI vehicles, Yadav said, “All cars need to have a PUC certificate. The existing equipment at PUC centres are well-equipped to assess the emission levels from BS-VI vehicles, too.”

In order to phase out old vehicles early, the Delhi government is acting on a Supreme Court order prohibiting the plying of diesel vehicles that are older than 10 years and petrol variants older than 15 years in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Delhi’s air pollution action plan

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a 10-point “winter action plan” last week for tackling air pollution in the national capital. Besi­des blaming neighbouring states for not doing enough to curb stubble burning, Kejriwal emphasised the importance of dust control, installing smog towers and curbing vehicular emissions.

Kejriwal proposed that all cars coming to Delhi from NCR should be converted to Compressed Natural Gas vehicles. He also suggested that all industries operating in NCR that use polluting fuels need to run on piped natural gas.