End of road for clunkers as govt mulls BS-I vehicles ban

Centre plans to double the incentives to nudge owners to replace such vehicles

- Subhash Narayan

NEW DELHI: To weed out polluting vehicles older than 20 years from Indian roads, the highway ministry is considering a carrot-and-stick approach. It plans to double the incentives to nudge owners to replace them, and if that doesn't work, order mandatory scrapping.

The ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) is examining a proposal to ban vehicles complying with the first-generation Bharat Stage I (BS I) norms even if they possess fitness certificates, two people aware of the matter said on the condition of anonymity.

The first person quoted earlier said that their scrapping would be made mandatory if higher incentives do not encourage owners to replace them with vehicles meeting the latest BS VI specifications.