In a first, govt notifies end of life rules for abandoned old vehicles

Diesel vehicles older than 15 years found plying or parked in public places that are impounded, will not be released to the owners, and will be directly handed over to licensed scrapping centres. Petrol vehicles of the same age will be returned to the owners only after they submit an undertaking.

“Such scrapping guidelines and scrapping procedure will help in ensuring that the vehicles, so scrapped, do not cause damage to environment. There should be a proper disposal of hazardous components of the scrapped vehicles. Also, a large number of junk vehicles are abandoned on roads which need to be disposed of in an environment-friendly manner,” the guidelines state.

The Centre is also in the process of drafting a vehicle scrap policy, transport department officials said. In Delhi’s case, the transport department will issue licenses to scrapping centres, provided they possess the requisite equipment and facilities to remove batteries, liquefied gas tanks, various fluids, and components made of heavy metals, among others.

The removal, recycling or disposal of hazardous parts has to be done in an environment-friendly manner as per the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Environment Department, say the guidelines, issued with the approval of Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot.

As per the municipal corporations, which have around 26 storage spaces for confiscated junk vehicles, they are fast running out of space. This is because the owners of such vehicles rarely turn up to collect their vehicles, since they are of little value to them.

The situation might change now, as the empanelled vendors for scrapping vehicles, who can be contacted through their registered websites, will offer a scrap value to the owners. The minimum value of each vehicle model will be available on the websites.

“An authorised scrapper shall maintain computerised records of the vehicles scrapped by him along with CCTV footage of the procedure…The live feed of the scrapping shall be made available to the operational control centre of the transport department on 24×7 basis with back-up facilities for three months,” the guidelines add.