The bullock carts have almost faded away, replaced by mechanised transport. Electric cars are now nudging out automobiles. The green transport revolution is on its way.How much an impact this will have, needs to be seen because the worst polluters are still around; for the meat and construction industry it’s business as usual.
The most lame argument for scrapping of cars aged over 15 years and their replacement with new cars, is environmental pollution. Are all automobiles over 15 years polluting our air?
Forced scrapping of vehicles reeks of a conspiracy, a stance taken to ensure the automobile industry’s good health and survival.
Car engines are not exactly like disposable batteries. They are durable and made to last a lifetime or a minimum of 30 years if well-maintained and serviced regularly.
Regular pollution checks ensure that only non polluting cars ply on our roads.
The health of an engine is not determined by the year of its manufacture, but the actual running hours or mileage that an engine has clocked.
Modern alloys and technology has enabled production of efficient and high-performance engines capable of running four lakh miles and even up to one million miles before they begin to show signs of fatigue, wear and tear or polluting.
A badly-tuned engine of a brand new car could be a worse polluter if not properly tuned. Whereas, a well-tuned 40-year-old engine can be cleaner and by no means polluting if serviced regularly and properly tuned.
Engines can be refurbished and de-carbonised, and can ensure performance levels at par with that of a new engine.
To imagine the cost and environmental stress that would go into manufacturing lakhs of new vehicles in India is no rocket science.
A viable option and a win-win situation for the environment and vehicle-owners could be the replacement of the old engine with a new one.
The law permits replacement and re-registration of vehicles. In India, people can not afford to change cars every 10-15 years. There is need for scientific intervention, instead of a hammerhead approach.
There are other polluting sources that need to be managed urgently. Construction activities and the smoldering waste dumps produce larger amounts of pollutants in Delhi.
Traffic congestions and gridlocks for hours consume thousands of litres of fossil fuel every hour. Traffic management and its smoother flow could bring down the consumption as well as pollution levels. Management is the key.
The ban on 15-year-old cars needs to be reviewed. Delhi struggles to manage 10,000 tonnes of garbage daily. Do we have the space to handle and park tens of thousands of private and commercial vehicles?
A senior retired couple I know owns an 18-year-old car with only 20,000-km on the clock. The couple uses it for trip to the shopping centre every weekend. They can’t get it scrapped as they are dependent on it for an emergency.
Such underutilised and low-mileage vehicles do not contribute to pollution.
The speed at which technology is advancing, combustion engines will be history in a few years. Pressure to shift to electric cars would be a prudent move, than purchasing internal combustion engines again.
A Government of India subsidy, announced in 2014, for purchase of electric cars and two-wheelers, aims seven million electric vehicles on the road by 2020.
The planet is going through troubled times, the need is for long-term solutions. Electrical cars will ensure a cleaner healthier future.
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