From March 31, the Delhi government will roll out an AI-based automated system to prevent the refueling of vehicles beyond the permitted age. The Automated End of Life Vehicle Detection System will use existing cameras originally installed to check Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates and integrate them with AI-powered detection technology.
The move is aimed at enforcing the ban on refueling of vehicles older than 15 years for petrol and 10 years for diesel from next month announced a day ago by Delhi’s Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa.
“This step is crucial to curb pollution and ensure strict enforcement of the existing ban on overage vehicles,” Sirsa said.
Currently, traffic police and transport department teams manually check vehicle documents to determine their age. However, identifying old vehicles at petrol pumps, where thousands of vehicles arrive daily, has been a challenge. To address this, the Delhi government’s Transport Department has developed this AI-based software that will instantly detect overage vehicles as they enter petrol pumps.
According to officials, the software will connect the transport department’s database of registered vehicles with PUC records to determine the vehicle’s registration year. If an overaged vehicle is detected at a petrol pump, the system will immediately alert the station.
Officials explained that the system relies on automatic number plate recognition cameras installed at petrol pumps. These cameras are directly connected to the Transport Department’s server, which stores registration and PUC data. “As soon as a vehicle enters a petrol pump, the camera will scan its number plate and instantly verify its age and PUC status. If the vehicle is too old or lacks a valid PUC, a warning beep will sound, and the number will be displayed on a screen at the pump, alerting staff to stop refueling,” said a senior transport department official.
So far, the government has installed these cameras at 367 petrol pumps across the city, with another 35 expected to be covered by the end of March. “Once fully operational, this system will make it much easier to identify overage vehicles and take action against violators,” the official added.
The transport department is also continuing to de-register petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles older than 10 years. “If such vehicles are caught, they will be immediately sent for scrapping,” the official said.
