The Commission for Air Quality Management recently directed that all end-of-life vehicles (ELV) will not be given fuel in Delhi starting July 1, 2025. While the move reflects an intent to curb vehicular pollution to address the Delhi-NCR’s chronic air quality crisis, it distracts from the deeper malaise: the failure to strictly enforce emission compliance on all vehicles on the road, not just the old ones. The air quality discourse appears to have increasingly turned punitive over the years. From banning older vehicles to restricting fuel access for “over-aged” vehicles, Delhi appears to be shifting all its environmental responsibility onto vehicle owners. Using vehicle age as a proxy for pollution, it overlooks the complex relationship between fuel, engine maintenance, and usage. A closer look into the systemic architecture such as unrenewed emission verification norms, regulatory gaps in testing frameworks, and poor enforcement of fuel efficiency standards reveals a troubling reality: India’s policy focus is targeting the tailpipe without reforming the pipeline.
Age vs. Emissions: A Scientific Disjunct India’s air pollution control framework, influenced by European emission regulations and early 2000s Supreme Court rulings, has evolved into the Bharat Standards (BS). Judicial decisions force diesel vehicles off the roads after 10 years and petrol after 15, regardless of compliance with the set emission standards. This approach that prioritises age over actual emissions creates a disjunct: a well-maintained BS-IV vehicle running on petrol or diesel and regularly passing pollution tests must be scrapped, while newer, but poorly maintained vehicles can continue to operate. Originally a thumb rule to compensate for limited available enforcement facilities, this blanket age-based criterion needs replacement by more granular, real-time metrics using emission data, owing to the changes in the air pollution index in Delhi-NCR. While in 2000s, studies attributed vehicular contributions to PM2.5 emissions at around 25 per cent, today, other denser sources such as construction dust, industrial emissions, and seasonal fires also contribute significantly to Delhi’s pollution.
Systemic Gaps in Enforcement
A 2022 CAG report also highlighted systemic deficiencies in Delhi’s vehicle fitness testing regime. As of 2021, automated testing centres comprised just 12 pc of testing capacity and were used at only 5 pc of their capacity. Manual centres, which rely on visual checks and cannot assess pollutants like NOx and PM2.5, handled 95 pc of tests. This opacity allows manipulation and undermines vehicle fitness declarations, rendering the PUC regime toothless.
Furthermore, Delhi’s vehicle scrapping ecosystem is also ineffective with most ELVs ending up with unauthorised scrap dealers or are resold in states with laxer rules, merely shifting pollution elsewhere. Instead of modernising outdated frameworks using data-driven, performance-based criteria, the government is forcing people to scrap or replace functional vehicles that may still meet existing testing norms. The approach also overlooks circular economy principles, and the embedded emissions associated with manufacturing new vehicles.
This blanket approach also unfairly affects senior citizens, who may be maintaining their vehicles well, drive sparingly, and use them for essential mobility. Additionally, it may be putting significant financial strain and inequitably penalises all those who have vehicles but prefer to use public transport.
The Overlooked Efficiency Gap
Each year, Delhi-NCR faces severe air pollution, yet responses such as the Graded Response Action Plan and the odd-even scheme remain short-term measures. A robust fuel and emissions control strategy is now critical — one that allows even older, well-maintained vehicles to remain compliant.
Tailpipe emission verification is key and must be enforced rigorously along with tightening of the emission norms. Regular checks can identify high emitters and ensure compliance, addressing real-world emissions. With the planned installation of ANPR cameras, Delhi can create an automated system to restrict entry for high-emitting vehicles based on real-time data. Vehicle profiles (linked to VAHAN data) could include fuel type, age, emissions and PUC compliance status, and past testing history, supplemented by remote sensing devices. Such a system, free of human tampering, would allow well-maintained vehicles to continue while restricting true polluters – irrespective of the vehicle age.
Furthermore, authorities can consider transferable scrapping credits linked to Aadhaar and vehicle registration, which can reward owners scrapping vehicles with incentives or offset allowances for new purchases or public transport usage. Such market-based mechanisms have a better chance of nudging behavioural change more efficiently than blanket bans.
Accountability Must Travel Upstream
India cannot afford to delay course correction. While rhetoric around vehicle bans creates an illusion of action, it fails to address the systemic inefficiencies in enforcing upstream compliance. The current focus on visible, short-term solutions offers optics of action but may not result in real impacts. Effective air quality improvements will come not from mass vehicle scrapping but from a targeted crackdown on non-compliance, regardless of vehicle age. Only with genuine enforcement and data-driven policy can India hope to address vehicular pollution meaningfully and equitably.
Dr. Debajit Palit | Head, Centre for Climate Change & Energy Transition at Chintan Research Foundation, New Delhi
Meheli Roy Choudhury | Research Consultant, Centre for Climate Change and Energy Transition, Chintan Research Foundation, New Delhi
(Views are personal)