Impound overage vehicles with NOC to be sold outside Delhi but still in city, officials told

The enforcement wing of the Delhi transport department will impound overage vehicles which have a no objection certificate (NOC) to be sold outside the Capital but have not been sent outside the city within a month of NOC being issued, according to an order issued on June 28.

“……I, commissioner of transport…..hereby order that “Enforcement wing of Transport Department to impound all such (overage) vehicle plying or deemed to be plying (parked in public place), even if NOC has been issued but vehicle has not been shifted out of Delhi even after one month of issuance of such NOC and handover directly to the registered vehicle scrapping facilities (RVSFS) empanelled by Transport Department,” the order issued by the transport commissioner stated.

The commissioner has also directed the New Delhi Municipal Council, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Traffic Police to initiate drives for impounding such vehicles and send them for scrapping.

Any registered diesel vehicle more than 10 years old, and all vehicles over 15 years old are not allowed to operate in the national capital region (NCR), according to orders issued by the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court. The government terms such vehicles as “end of Iife” vehicles, and driving them in Delhi is illegal owing to their dated emission standards.

Since 2018, the Delhi transport department has de-registered around 5.5 million overage vehicles. “After deregistration, a vehicle cannot be legally used, and the insurance of such vehicles cannot also be issued,” said an official aware of the matter.

However, Delhi’s motor licensing officers issue NOCs to overage vehicles which can be used in other states after registration. “These vehicles cannot be used in Delhi, but NOCs can be used in select states to get the vehicle re-registered there. It is illegal to drive any such vehicle without re-registration in that state,” another senior transport department official said.

States where such vehicles are allowed to be sold and re-registered include Rajasthan and Meghalaya (all districts), Bihar (18 districts), Maharashtra (26 districts), Uttar Pradesh (33) and West Bengal (all districts, but only BS-IV vehicles can be registered).

According to anotherofficial, around 5,000 overage vehicles seek NOC for registration in other states every year. Between January 2022 to December 2022, a total of 5,551 applications were received for NOC, the official said.

No data was, however, available on how many of these vehicles were re-registered and how many of them were shifted outside Delhi. It was also not known how many such vehicles are still in the Capital.

“If any overage vehicle, which obtained NOC more than a month ago but has not been shifted out of Delhi, is found parked in public places, or found plying in the Capital, will also be impounded and sent for scrapping,” said the first official.