NEW DELHI: After six years of running, the Delhi government will scrap the amendment it made in the school cab policy where old vehicles were no longer allowed to be used to ferry children to and from school. The transport department officials said that they are currently working to reintroduce the option of registering old vehicles as school taxis, albeit with a small number of riders.
Officials said that by fulfilling certain requirements, such as installing speed governors, and roof carriers to carry bags, private cars, that are not older than 1-5 years and are CNG-run, can be registered as commercial ones and used to ferry the students.
The draft of the new scheme, prepared by the transport department, has been sent to the law department for legal vetting. Following vetting, a cabinet note would be prepared for approval by the city government and then sent to the L-G for final approval before issuing a gazette notification.
Officials said that the move will address the shortage of commercial vehicles used as school cabs. At present, around 35,000 school taxis are working in Delhi to transport children. However, the number of vehicles registered in the school cab category is about 9,000, sources said.
Sources said that the amendment to the school cab policy fueled the shortage of school cabs. The school cab policy was formulated in 2007, which enabled private cars that were less than 15 years old to be registered as school taxis. However, in 2015, the government prohibited the registration of school taxis.
An additional criterion was introduced in 2017, stating that only new cars can be registered in this category. According to the policy, the speed governors of school cabs are set at 40 kmph, but the new vehicles on the market come with company-fitted speed governors at 60–80 kmph.
“It made it difficult for the drivers to register their cabs because exceeding the 40 kmph speed limit resulted in hefty fines,” a senior official said.