KOCHI: The State government on Wednesday informed the Kerala High Court that the enhancement of the life span of private buses plying as stage carriers to 20 years from 15 was as per law. The decision was taken considering the representations received from the private bus operators’ associations.The affidavit was filed in response to a writ petition challenging the government decision to extend the life span of stage carriers by five more years.
The government said that in fact, it has decided to amend the rule 260A of the Kerala Motor Vehicles Rules for extending the life span of stage carriages by 5 years as a condition of grant of permit considering the implementation of the body code, draft vehicle scrapping policy of the Centre and the time required for replacing old buses by purchasing new electric/CNG/LNG buses. The objective of the government to increase the life span of the vehicle was based on the Electric vehicle policy.
The state pointed out that the Centre had not fixed any age limit for stage carriers so far. Besides, no state government had set the age limit of stage carriers.Moreover, the scrapping policy mandated the de-registration of commercial vehicles and medium and heavy commercial vehicles after completing twenty years. In these circumstances, the government decided to increase the life span of stage carriers to 20 years.