Kolkata: The transport department has initiated the process of scrapping commercial transport vehicles aged more than 15 years in Kolkata and Howrah.
These vehicles are still featured in ‘Vahan’ portal, the country’s integrated vehicular database portal. This is part of the cleaning-up process of old polluting vehicles from the city as ordered by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The process initiated by the transport department for scrapping old vehicles in three phases has so far received a lukewarm response, revealed the affidavit submitted by the transport department in response to the case filed by applicant Ankur Sharma.
In the first phase, vehicles registered between January 1, 1970 and December 31, 1999, are chosen for scrapping. The affidavit revealed that 1,30,046 vehicles in Kolkata and 20,136 in Howrah were registered during this period. However, 66,217 vehicles in Kolkata and 211 in Howrah were rejected as they had duplicate registration with some other regional transport offices (RTOs), leaving only 64,274 in Kolkata and 12,168 vehicles in Howrah to be effectively scrapped.
The transport department has already cancelled the registration of 1,29,704 commercial vehicles registered during this period. But mere cancellation of the registration may not give the desired results. Thus maximum impetus is given to the scrapping of these old commercial vehicles.
In the second phase vehicles registered between January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2004 are chosen for scrapping. In Kolkata 33,707 vehicles and 4,640 in Howrah were identified for scrapping. In Kolkata, 8,891 and in Howrah, 51 vehicles were rejected for having registration record with multiple RTOs.
In Kolkata 89,063 notices were served to old vehicle owners for both Phase I and Phase II scrapping. In Howrah, 12,168 notices were issued to for both Phase I and Phase II scrapping. But only 2,415 vehicles owners in Kolkata and 648 in Howrah for both the phases responded agreeing to scrapping their old vehicles.
In Phase III, vehicles that are registered between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2007, would be taken off road from Kolkata and Howrah. Meanwhile, the state has drawn its scrapping policy modelled on the central scrapping rules. The transport department has sought private participation in the public-private participation (PPP) model for developing modern scraping facilities across the state, the first of which is coming up at Nilgunj.
“We are prioritizing scraping of old commercial vehicles. After clearing the backlog we might think of old private vehicles,” said a senior transport department officer.
