Decision to pave way for cleaner vehicles in country
BH CORRESPONDENT, NEW DELHI: The country’s long-delayed vehicle scrappage policy will be finalized soon, according to road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari. The minister confirmed this at the Auto Expo 2020 in Greater Noida recently.
Seen as an attempt by the government to boost automobile demand, the policy has been in works for over six months. It is also expected to help remove old polluting vehicles from the roads.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also confirmed by saying that several round of inter-ministerial consultations pertaining to the scrappage policy have already been done and it is close to finalization. “I have cleared it from my end,” Gadkari added.
To effect the scrappage policy, it will have to get the Union Cabinet’s nod first.
In August, Sitharaman had announced several steps to help the ailing automobile sector, including compulsory scrappage for automobiles, which is directly aimed at increasing production and capacity utilization.
Industry and policy watchers expect the policy once put into effect will help the automobile industry as it will reduce the need to import of raw materials such as steel, copper and aluminium, which can be extracted from scrap
In October, the ministry had issued a raft of guidelines to set up vehicle scrapping centres in the country, to help protect the environment and promote dismantling and scrapping industry.
Gadkari is keen to push clean, alternative fuels such as ethanol, methanol as well as bio diesel, as one of its ways to reduce pollution. The minister claimed that a Cabinet note has been circulated to introduce 15% blending of methanol into petrol and diesel.
