Scrapping old vehicles- The panacea for clean air

V P Jain
The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a petition challenging an order passed by the
National Green Tribunal (NGT) in November banning vehicles over 15 years old from plying
on Delhi roads. The Tribunal had ordered authorities to seize vehicles over 15 years old and
take appropriate action against the owners under the Motor Vehicles Act. It had ordered that
these vehicles be towed away from parking spots and their use challenged in a court of law
by the police. This direction was made applicable to all vehicles, i.e., two wheelers, three
wheelers, four wheelers, light vehicles and heavy vehicles, irrespective of whether
commercial or otherwise.
The NGT judgement is based on the premise that age and pollution propensity of the
vehicles are correlated. If that is really so why pollution check for new cars? According to the
Secretary-cum-Commissioner of Delhi's Transport Department, the number of vehicles that
are over 15 years of age are no less than 29 lakh in Delhi. It should be born in mind that all
these vehicles need to be certified as non-polluting every three months, to be able to ply on
Delhi roads, as mandated by the CPCB. If this pollution certification is a farce then why not
do away with it. Moreover, it is text book material to know that the pollution by a vehicle is
the function of mileage covered and not just its age: more the mileage a car covers in a day,
more the emission it releases in the air. A much more effective indicator of polluting
propensity of a vehicle is to take a multiple of emission per KM and VKT (vehicle kilometres
travelled). Similarly, debate about appropriate emission norms highlights many other factors
which may affect ambient air quality much more. According to a US study in the 1990s by
Beaton, et al, emission distribution was highly skewed-that 7 per cent of the vehicles
accounted for 50 per cent of the total on-road CO emissions and 10 per cent of the vehicles
accounted for 50 per cent of the HC emissions, termed as the gross polluters.(Reddy, C.M) It
is often assumed that gross polluters are simply old vehicles(But) the highest emitting 20
per cent of the newest cars were worst polluters than the lowest emitting 40 per cent of
vehicles from any model year, even those from before the advent of catalytic converters
(1970 and earlier). These data are typical of results across the US, and at many other
locations worldwide. The study is a pointer to a new approach towards emission reduction
strategies: "it found that a emission reduction strategy (at an average cost of just $200 a
vehicle) decreased HC and CO levels by an amazing 55 and 24 per cent more than scrapping
the 73 per cent of all vehicles that were over three years old and at an estimated one-tenth the
cost". The Society for Automobile fitness and environment in India has estimated that with an
investment of as little as Rs.12000 the emission levels of all the old commercial vehicles on
the roads already can be brought below the current norms for the new vehicles (Reddy, The
Hindu Survey of environment 2000).
The pertinent question is if the citizens are deprived of their means of personal
transport, they would have to lean on public transport, which is highly inadequate even to
cater to the existing commuters. Unfortunately, the supply of mass transport services is not in

conformity with the growth of urban population and expanding economic activities. The least
explored aspect of choice of transit mode is comfort: commuters expect a minimum level of
comfort in a journey, a threshold, below which it becomes imperative to look for alternatives,
which invariably means opting for private vehicles, entailing higher private and social cost.
The neo- liberalization policy followed by the Indian government since 1990s has resulted in
the production of a wide variety of automobiles including two wheelers, passenger cars and
commercial vehicles, without any constraint on engine size, fuel efficiency and strict
pollution norms. What is often ignored is that all types of emissions are toxic and their
deleterious effect is felt only when the threshold level is crossed. When autos displaced
horse-cart in the 1920s, the auto looked initially like an enormous improvement to the
environment. However, the continued growth in vehicle miles traveled has over whelmed
these improvements in vehicle emissions. The sum total of polluting gases in the air now
cannot be improved by just tuning up each car. The problem now is not with each car. The
problem is with the sum total of cars.
Without augmenting the public transport system the judgement is akin to displacing
lakhs of people to fend for themselves without the state taking any responsibility to
rehabilitate them. Most of the owners of these vehicles are middle and lower middle class
people and cannot afford to buy new vehicles. Everybody has the right to enjoy the fruits of
development, never mind if they are happy only with second hand gadgets. One of the
cardinal principal of environmental protection is to recycle and not generate waste. We as a
poor nation cannot afford the luxury of scraping lakhs of vehicles which are in perfect
running condition. We refuse to meet global norms of emitting greenhouse gases for want of
development. But if it is a question of some comforts and a bit of luxury for the Aam Admi,
environment becomes the mother of all issues within the country.
Efficient transport management, which is a very complex process, not only will
remain elusive, but create insurmountable problems, if not examined in a perspective.
Transport in our modern society has a wide variety of negative environmental consequences
(externalities) which manifests in depletion of natural resources, noise, landscape
deterioration, urban sprawl, fatalities, congestion and socio-psychological stress, local and
global air pollution being only one facet. Even though no systematic attempt has been made
to chart a city stress index for metropolis in India, transport system, at least in Delhi, has
more than its share in creating an atmosphere of anxiety and stress on the roads which we
have to cope with. Several facets of transport such as non availability, noise, crowding, rash
driving, are some of the unpleasant experiences of everyday commuting in Delhi. Long
waiting time due to inadequate public transport in Delhi is highly exasperating and
frustrating. Noise in the form of unwanted sound whether in the form of honking of horns or
loud music from the tape-recorder of the bus driver or from the unmanageable fleet of
vehicles is linked to a number of ailments ranging from nervous tension to neurosis. Added to
this is visual pollution Overcrowding on the roads, smoke, undisciplined traffic are known as
aesthetic pollutants which do violence to our sensibilities and leads to morbidity and sickness.
Any policy which seeks to contain vehicular pollution would have to address the issue with
regard to structure and pattern of demand for vehicles and their background reasons.
Transport issues have to be addressed in the context of sustainable development which

implies that all economic activities are managed within the confines of ecological
imperatives. Ecologically sustainable transport would ensure that, not only it is not an
environmental threat, but also performs its economic and social functions efficiently.
Effective policy requires an integrated approach that does not treat the problem of transport
as an isolated issue, but as an element of larger spectrum concerning the structure of the
economy itself. But the problem remains because we merely respond to each crisis, as it
comes without a perspective. A lasting and meaningful solution would emerge only when
the issue is taken up in its totality as an integral part of the overall ecological crisis.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/22987/Ecologically-sustainable-transport