Old is no longer gold

Roadblocks ahead for scrapping unfit and outdated vehicles as lakhs of them are plying on the roads in the State in absence of a mechanism to identify and scrap them

One of the major contributors of air pollution is the rising number of vehicles by the day. Even as it is largely presumed that the increasing number of new vehicles on the roads leads to higher air pollution levels, old cars cause abnormally high pollution, a fact that is largely overlooked.

A report by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways suggests that one old car emits gases equivalent to the amount emitted by 11 new cars and an old truck emits gases equivalent to the amount emitted by 14 new trucks.

In Andhra Pradesh, lakhs of outdated transport and non-transport vehicles are plying on the roads in the absence of any mechanism to identify and scrap them. The situation is more or less is the same across the country, even as the implementation of the Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Programme (VVMP) from next year is expected to offer credible solutions in this regard.

According to Transport Department officials, Andhra Pradesh, as on September 30, 2022, has 1,60,01,918 registered vehicles including 1,40,99,828 non-transport vehicles such as cars, motorcycles and 19,02,090 transport ones such as trucks, trailers and other commercial vehicles. Of the total, 3,87,793 transport vehicles are at least 15 years old and 15,97,982 non-transport vehicles are at least 20 years old.

Many of these outdated vehicles are owned by the government departments and still in use, eve as many departments have started replacing old vehicles with the electric ones.

According to the Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Programme, the maximum life of a transport vehicle is 15 years and that of a non-transport vehicle is 20 years. After the prescribed time period, the vehicles will be declared as ‘end of life vehicles’ (ELV).

It has also made it mandatory that a transport vehicle should renew fitness certificate once in every two years up to the eighth year of registration and once in a year up thereafter to 15 years.