NEW DELHI: The first day of the fuel ban for overaged vehicles in Delhi remained eventful with challenges, including technical glitches, confusion at petrol pumps, dip in sales of petrol and a media gag order issued by a petroleum company.
While the implementation largely remained peaceful, several petrol stations across the city reported malfunctioning Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, which misread vehicles passing by rather than those entering for refueling. In one case, an ANPR camera at a station on GT Road in Dilshad Garden mistakenly issued an alert for an overaged vehicle that had not even entered the station.
“The camera was capturing the road instead of the entrance to the station,” the station manager said.
Dealers and petrol pump staff also reported a rush of last-minute installations of alert systems required by the new policy. "The soundbox for the alert system, which announces the registration number of vehicles approaching for refueling, was only installed in the morning," said a staff member from Vij Auto Centre, a Bharat Petroleum dealer in Mayur Vihar Phase III.
In addition to the technical issues, fuel stations near state borders reported a notable decline in sales, especially of petrol. According to the Delhi Petrol and Dealers Association (DPDA), sales at border stations dropped by up to 15 per cent.
"Overaged vehicles seem to be bypassing Delhi’s fuel stations and heading to locations in NCR, such as those near Ghazipur Border and Loni. However, this dip was observed in petrol sales only,” said Nishchal Singhania, President of the DPDA. Dealers speculate that overaged petrol vehicles, unable to fuel up in Delhi, are driving across borders to refill.
Notably, a petroleum company issued an informal directive asking its dealers to restrict media access and discourage any reporting within station premises.
“All dealers, managers, CAs or any other employee of the outlet are not to give any interview, byte, information to any media outlet…Please ensure as you all will be under tremendous pressure from media outlets for the same in view of the implementation of the recent policy. Please do not permit any filming of any media report within the outlet premises,” the direction circulated via WhatsApp to dealers read.
The new policy also divided the public. While some people support the measure, among those voicing concerns was Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who took to X to to wonder how the move could influence the choice between owning and leasing a vehicle.
"How many of us will opt for leasing a car instead of owning one, due to this? Did some F.I.R.E. or finfluencer do a calculation for this yet?" Sharma wrote on X.