NEW DELHI: In a major decision aimed at providing relief to lakhs of vehicle owners and reducing vehicular pollution in the capital, the Delhi government on Thursday announced the relaxation of norms for issuing No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for deregistered vehicles.
In a big relief to vehicle owners, the government has decided to keep in abeyance the restrictive clause from the “Guidelines for Handling End of Life Vehicles in Public Places of Delhi, 2024,” which limited the application for NOC to only within one year of a vehicle’s registration expiry.
This move will primarily benefit owners of diesel vehicles over 10 years old and petrol vehicles over 15 years old, allowing them to obtain an NOC to re-register their vehicles in other states outside the Delhi-NCR region, irrespective of how long ago their vehicle’s registration expired.
Speaking on the development, Delhi Transport Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh said, “Our dual focus has always been on citizen welfare and environmental protection. We found that the one-year deadline for NOC was creating an unintended logjam, leaving lakhs of vehicles stranded in Delhi.
These vehicles were neither being scrapped nor could they be moved out, leading to potential pollution and congestion. By relaxing this criterion, we are empowering our citizens to make a responsible choice. This decision will systematically phase out a significant number of older vehicles from Delhi’s roads, giving a direct boost to our efforts in improving air quality and decongesting our city.”
This proactive step, proposed in response to numerous public representations and internal reviews, aligns with the department’s earlier orders of 2021 and 2022, which were formulated in compliance with directions from the National Green Tribunal (NGT). It ensures that vehicles deregistered due to age can be legally transferred to regions where they are permitted to ply, effectively removing them from the National Capital’s ecosystem.
The government expects this notification to provide a structured and eco-friendly exit route for old vehicles, complementing the national vehicle scrapping policy.
‘Empowering citizensto make responsible choice’
“Our dual focus has always been on citizen welfare and environmental protection. We found that the one-year deadline for NOC was creating an unintended logjam, leaving lakhs of vehicles stranded in Delhi. By relaxing this criterion, we are empowering our citizens to make a responsible choice,” transport minister Pankaj Kumar said.
