Relief For People Owning Overage Vehicles In Delhi?
Two-wheelers and cars at the End Of Life (EOL) will be allowed refueling in Delhi, until technical challenges are sorted
Quick Highlights:
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Delhi enforced fuel ban for overage vehicles (petrol-powered two-wheelers that are over 15 years old), and for diesel cars over 10 years old from July 1
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Following opposition from citizens and also technical difficulties, the fuel policy has been paused
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The rule is said to be on hold until ANPR (Automated Number Plate Recognition) system is installed, and other issues are ironed out
The CAQM (Commission For Air Quality Management) recently announced a fuel ban rule in Delhi for all overage vehicles starting from July 1, 2025. This applied to diesel cars that are over 10 years old and all petrol-powered vehicles (cars, bikes, scooters) that are over 15 years old. However, Delhi’s environment minister, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, wrote to the management, requesting them to put the rule on hold. According to the government, the fuel ban is not currently feasible due to complex technology and lack of infrastructure.
Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa writes to the Commission for Air Quality Management to place on hold the enforcement of Direction No. 89, which mandates the denial of fuel to End-of-Life (EOL) vehicles in Delhi
— ANI (@ANI) July 3, 2025
"We urge the Commission to put the implementation… pic.twitter.com/mgg1Ymdaes
As reported by ANI on July 3, 2025, in the letter the minister said, “We urge the Commission to put the implementation of Direction No. 89 on hold with immediate effect till the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system is seamlessly integrated across the entire NCR,”. He also added, "We are confident that the ongoing multi-pronged efforts of the Delhi Government will achieve substantial improvements in air quality,".
According to CAQM, there are 62 lakh registered ‘overage’ vehicles in Delhi, out of which, over 41 lakh are two-wheelers. The number is quite high, and according to the original plan to make it easier to detect such vehicles, around 500 fuel stations have installed ANPR (Automated Number Plate Recognition) cameras.
These cameras are directly linked with the Vahan database, and automatically detect older vehicles. However, they are not as widespread, and there have also been other technical challenges including camera systems not functioning properly, users trying to circumvent the ruling by fuelling up in neighbouring regions outside of Delhi, among other issues.
As mentioned in our previous news regarding the fuel ban in Delhi, a lot of people are solely dependent on these old two-wheelers for their livelihood. Hence, transitioning to a new vehicle on such a short notice is going to be challenging. The ideal way to go about this should be to allow older vehicles that have a valid PUC certificate, and penalise only those who do not have one. For this, strict checking of PUC will have to be enforced. We’ll have to wait and see how the situation unfolds in the coming weeks. .
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