[boniver]

15 year old commercial vehicles had earlier been banned from plying in the city of Kolkata and Howrah. Today's copy of The Telegraph carries an article named "Vehicle scrap plan in top-gear" that mentions the banning and scrapping of all 15 plus year old vehicles running in various department offices of the West Bengal government by 31st December, 2019. However, it provides no clarity on the position of private vehicles now, and the term "15 year old vehicles" used throughout the article makes one believe that privately owned vehicles are under the radar too.

The transport department has asked all government departments to dump vehicles that are aged 15 years or older.

Calcutta police have more than 180 such vehicles. The transport department has more than 100 and the health department more than 40 such vehicles.

In 2008, Calcutta High Court had banned all vehicles aged 15 years or older in the Calcutta Metropolitan Area (CMA) to bring down vehicular pollution.

The CMA covers the city and municipal areas in the adjoining districts of Howrah, Hooghly, North and South 24-Parganas, and a part of Nadia.

In the absence of a concerted attempt to enforce the order, thousands of government and private vehicles more than 15 years old are a common sight in the city.

“This letter is aimed at impressing the National Green Tribunal. We have reasons to believe that close to a lakh of vehicles aged 15 years or older are plying in and around Calcutta,” Subhas Dutta, environment activist, said.

This is not the first time that the transport department has flagged its concern on vehicles more than 15 years old.

In January, the department had issued a notice banning the entry of such vehicles in Calcutta and Howrah.

Source

Is this the death knell for privately owned and well-maintained old cars in the city of Kolkata? I for one, am still of the opinion that stringent tests should be carried out for vehicles irrespective of their age and only those passing the tests should be allowed to ply on our roads. I myself own a 16 year old car, and have been following this topic closely for a while now. Will have to soon take a call on whether to sell off our car or continue using it (Registration is valid till 2024). I'm sure of one thing though, if this policy ends up getting implemented, we will not be buying another vehicle in the near-future.

[Shreyans_Jain]

The current and annual pollution emergency in all of north India renders any sentiment irrelevant. Good to see 15year+ vehicles being blacklisted. Hope the government will replace them with a fleet of electrics.

[KMT]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

The current and annual pollution emergency in all of north India renders any sentiment irrelevant. Good to see 15year+ vehicles being blacklisted. Hope the government will replace them with a fleet of electrics.

We generate a lot of our Electricity from Coal which is a much bigger pollutant than petrol/diesel, how do we deal with this?

Aditionally, unless we go Nuclrear big time, we cant go Electric due to lack of power supply.

But sadly, you may be right about sentiment not having any place in the current emergency, todays papers say Delhi residents can lose 7-10 years of their life due to particulate pollution.

PS I am a big fan of 15yr+ vehicles.

[boniver]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Hope the government will replace them with a fleet of electrics.

Respect your views. I have a question though: which car do you exactly have in mind when you mention "a fleet of electrics"? As far as I'm aware, the EVs on sale in India are the e20, the Kona and the Tigor. Do they have the potential to replace a Bolero, Innova or Scorpio?

If you're talking about buses though, electric buses have been introduced in Kolkata some time ago, and the entire fleet will be converted to electric much before the official timeline provided. Read more here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/comme...rt-2030-a.html (Kolkata plans shift to electric public transport from 2030)

[momsonlydriver]

What about the vintage cars? Aren't they all above 15 years old.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by momsonlydriver

What about the vintage cars? Aren't they all above 15 years old.

Firstly, this is only for government-owned vehicles .

Second, vintage & classic cars are usually exempt from such bans.

[boniver]

Originally Posted by momsonlydriver

What about the vintage cars? Aren't they all above 15 years old.

Originally Posted by GTO

Second, vintage & classic cars are usually exempt from such bans.

At this rate though, none of the cars on our roads today will ever become vintage/classic cars in future. Heck, even the legendary BMWs (E30, E36, E39, E46) and the Mercedes' (W123, W124, W126) are too young (by the NGT's standards) to be considered classic or vintage cars and they'll all be gone from our roads pretty soon.

[fighterace]

Originally Posted by boniver

15 year old commercial vehicles had earlier been banned from plying in the city of Kolkata and Howrah. Today's copy of The Telegraph carries an article named "Vehicle scrap plan in top-gear" that mentions the banning and scrapping of all 15 plus year old vehicles running in various department offices of the West Bengal government by 31st December, 2019. However, it provides no clarity on the position of private vehicles now, and the term "15 year old vehicles" used throughout the article makes one believe that privately owned vehicles are under the radar too.



Source

Is this the death knell for privately owned and well-maintained old cars in the city of Kolkata? I for one, am still of the opinion that stringent tests should be carried out for vehicles irrespective of their age and only those passing the tests should be allowed to ply on our roads. I myself own a 16 year old car, and have been following this topic closely for a while now. Will have to soon take a call on whether to sell off our car or continue using it (Registration is valid till 2024). I'm sure of one thing though, if this policy ends up getting implemented, we will not be buying another vehicle in the near-future.

Even if you check the forum itself, you'll find that the 2008 HC judgement was limited to commercial vehicles only. Stop reading the Telegraph, it's journalistic standards have fallen through the floor.


https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/comme...d-kolkata.html (15+ year old Commercial Vehicles banned in Kolkata)

[Subby]

Today there is news in a prominent Bengali newspaper about scrapping of privately owned vehicles which are more than 15 years old, in West Bengal.

The link is given here. https://www.anandabazar.com/west-ben...tl/cid/1341760

Apparently, WB RTO is going to implement this decision following directives from National Green Tribunal.




Admin: The news content given in link is in Bengali script. Please remove the post, if it violates any forum rules.

[Chhanda Das]

It seems that Kolkata too is going the Delhi way. The government has started implementing the ban on 15 year old vehicles in Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, North and South 24 Paraganas districts

https://indianexpress.com/article/ci...-told-6103444/

[DicKy]

“Delhi suffers air pollution every winter due to agricultural waste burning, while Kolkata’s major factor is auto emissions, as observed by NGT (National Green Tribunal),” he added.

And? So?

So NGT itself has observed that Delhi's air pollution issue is due to the stubble burning and not by auto emissions. Yet, they don't want to roll back the draconian 15/10 years rule.

[boniver]

This is a 3-year-old article that you've posted. The 15-year rule in Kolkata applies to commercial and government vehicles only. I had started a thread on the same 3 years ago: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...er-2019-a.html (15+ year old Govt vehicles in Kolkata to be scrapped by 31st December 2019)

[Chhanda Das]

Originally Posted by boniver

This is a 3-year-old article that you've posted. The 15-year rule in Kolkata applies to commercial and government vehicles only. I had started a thread on the same 3 years ago: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...er-2019-a.html (15+ year old Govt vehicles in Kolkata to be scrapped by 31st December 2019)

Thank you very much for pointing it out. The link that I shared above was showing as latest till yesterday but today it is being shown as from 2019 exactly as you mentioned above. However, here is a more relevant link from March this year :-

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/90341795.cms

Also, here is today's news from the largest Bengali newspaper which states that West Bengal is going to ban both commercial and private vehicles which are 15 years old :-

https://www.anandabazar.com/west-ben...tl/cid/1341760

[raktim]

It seems the policy is about scrapping more than 15 years old commercial vehicles and >20 years old private vehicles in and around Kolkata.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/89694147.cms