Government of India is committed to improve road safety – Nitin Gadkari

The ministry, which has mandated global consultancy firm McKinsey to outline the broad contours of the scheme, will soon approach the Finance Ministry to provide incentives to vehicles owners to “surrender” old, polluting vehicles to recycling agencies.

Transport minister said that if the proposal gets okayed, an owner of an old auto would get incentive of up to Rs 30,000, which could go up to Rs 60,000 for heavy commercial vehicles such as trucks. “If incentives will be given, it will be easy for people to surrender their old vehicles and get new vehicles of global specifications…may be of Euro 6 standard”, said Gadkari.

Gadkari’s plan is to set up 8-10 industrial units near ports like Kandla which will not only give certificates for accepting old vehicles but would recycle vehicles from India and overseas and thereby give a boost to employment and economy.

This comes at a time when the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has banned plying of diesel vehicles which are more than ten years old in the national capital region.

He also urged manufacturers to build Euro 6 compliant vehicles as early as possible, saying pollution is a big concern and the NGT has also passed its order. Manufactures now seeking time for four to five years. “Buses here are in lakhs and given the economic viability you can consider supply good quality vehicles at reasonable prices”, he said.

Apart from incentivizing consumers to discard old vehicles, the government also offers auto loans at lower interest rates and discount on new vehicles.

Gadkari has now asked automobile manufacturers to shift focus from manufacturing diesel-fuelled vehicles to those running on cleaner fuels such as bio-diesel, bio-CNG, hybrid and electricity. “Total benefits for big vehicles like trucks will be up to Rs. We are also considering a scheme through which buyers will receive some kickback in terms of fiscal incentives if he purchases retro-fitted electric vehicles from the market consequently”, said a senior government source.

Gadkari emphasised the adoption of new technologies like GPS-based system, passenger information system, CCTV, automatic fare collection system and electronic ticket vending in the transport sector to increase its efficacy. The permit raj is causing many hardships for the common man and needs to be put to an end for quicker progress, and also ending corruption. He said a bill adopting the best practices in the world in road transportation and safety standards will be brought soon.

During the inaugural session, Shri Vijay Chhibber, Secretary, Ministry of Road, Transport & Highways and President, ASRTU said that the need is to work in the direction of environment friendly transport system which is sustainable too.