[darklord]

KOCHI: National Green Tribunal's (NGT) special circuit bench at Ernakulam has banned the use of diesel vehicles older than 10 years, as in Delhi.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/52397410.cms

Malayalam news channels also specify engine capacity greater than 2000 cc as a ban criteria, besides the age criteria.

EDIT: Asianet news malayalam link:

Diesel vehicles over 10 years of age with engine capacity exceeding 2000 cc to be withdrawn within a month. After that, impounding and Rs. 10,000 fine for each day it runs. Malayalam link:

http://www.asianetnews.tv/news/green...d-above-2000cc

Edit 2: Update

With media reporting varying things, I decided to check out the order itself.

From the said order:

In the meanwhile, the State of Kerala shall not register any diesel vehicle with the capacity of 2000 cc and above, except public transport and local authority vehicle. Further, we direct that all the diesel vehicles, whether light or heavy, which are more than 10 years old, shall not be permitted to ply on the road in major cities like Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Thrissur, Calicut and Kannur.

Read in its entirety here:
http://www.greentribunal.gov.in/Writ...A23-5-2016.pdf


Mathrubhumi English edition has an accurate report on the matter:
http://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/...news-1.1080298

[jkdas]

Interesting but would this work? KSRTC and other will have a big number of old diesels.
Sun film ban, silencer ban and now this; lets see they implement this too.

[reignofchaos]

Well Delhi, Kerala and soon I feel this ban hammer will spread to the rest of the country as well.

Looks like folks need to say goodbye to diesels >2000 cc everywhere soon. This 10 year rule is completely arbitrary but as it is in India, such crazy laws exist everywhere.

Real shame there are no emissions tests done for vehicles - many good clean diesel engines will get thrown under the bus here thanks to blanket rules like this.

[Viju]

I wish the government brought a nationwide policy of restricting the life of vehicles, instead of courts and NGT issuing such rulings as and when they please.

When the NGT passes such an order, do they consider the plight of commercial vehicle owners (buses, lorries and taxies) whose vehicles are rendered useless overnight? Forget fleet owners, what about small time businessmen who have may be 2 or 3 buses or lorries, and that too bought second-hand and are over 10 years old? How does NGT make up for the loss of their livelihoods?

The same goes for private car owners as well who might have bought a used diesel car with their life-savings only because that is what they could afford to buy and run.

Why is it not possible to have annual or bi-annual fitness tests to determine whether a vehicle is allowed to ply on the roads or not?

I am from Cochin and do agree that the increase in pollution and temperature in the past few years have been alarming. But targeting only diesel vehicles for this change is a very narrow and myopic way of looking at the situation. Pollution is also because of the rapid increase in construction (including metro, malls and apartments) and the drastic loss of vegetation.

Wonder if anyone has the interest in analyzing things in detail before coming to such conclusions which affect the lives of lakhs of people.

And I fail to understand the logic behind targeting diesel engines over 2L. How did anyone come to this figure of 2L and what studies were done?! God only knows.

[Yeldo]

Originally Posted by Viju

instead of courts and NGT issuing such rulings as and when they please.

Legislative powers of the judiciary are well defined in the constitution. But nowadays, we increasingly see the judiciary exceeding its brief in this matter.

While saying this, I do not intend to question the motive and intent. And maybe the lack of initiative from the legislative arm of the state might be what forces the judiciary into such a situation.

Whatever, any measure to ease the pollution from whichever corner is welcome.

Three of my vehicles are Diesels. The oldest one is 9 year old, and newest one is 4 years old. So resale of these vehicles is practically gone out of the window. And if the 2000cc rule is coming, hope my Crysta gets delivered before that.

Kerala collects 15 years' tax for private vehicles, so there might be some refund of 5 years taxes, I hope.

Sincerely hope that the NGT Bench would take some tough steps against the pollution hotspot like Edayar / Eloor, the insane rock quarrying business, and the illegal plywood unit mafia.

[darklord]

Originally Posted by Yeldo

And if the 2000cc rule is coming, hope my Crysta gets delivered before that.

To clarify, as I saw it, the ban is for 10 years or older diesel vehicles with engine capacity above 2000 cc. I don't think it applies for new vehicles in any way.

Also, this has come at the most opportune (or inopportune) time, with the government in transition and the government's top lawyers having submitted their resignation.

[motorheart]

Do they reimburse balance 5 years of tax we paid for road tax

[hybridpetrol]

Originally Posted by Viju

And I fail to understand the logic behind targeting diesel engines over 2L. How did anyone come to this figure of 2L and what studies were done?! God only knows.

Exactly! Why 2L, why not 2.5L or 1.8L? Any reason why 1.99L is considered environment friendly, and a 2.2L engine hazardous to environment?
Why leave Petrol vehicles? There are petrol cars with 2.4L engines! Are they suited to run, by this logic?
Can I buy a 2.4L used petrol car (such as a Honda Accord) today with my entire savings and a car loan, and be assured that I can run it for a few years, without facing a ban next year?
When life time road tax is collected for 15 years, isn't it illegal to disallow cars after 10th year?
If I still continue to drive a 2.5L diesel Innova, is there any law through which the Police will act on it?

[sdp1975]

Well the TOI report does not say anything about 2000 cc - so it appears that all diesel vehicles older than 10 years , will be banned.

I also did not see any other news channels carrying this news - and assuming it's correct, will wait for more details to come in.

[DicKy]

What the .....

Seriously, something is wrong with these institutions bringing laws overnight that are going to have far reaching effect on the people.

If this results in the greatest polluters; old buses and lorries being forced out of the road, it's a good move. But many people's livelihood are dependent on these machines. they should give some grace period to convert to CNG or new vehicles in a phased manner.

But these knee jerk ruling are doing no one a favour, as it has been proved many times that particulate pollution is caused by many factors of which vehicles contribute only a small percentage.

1. If it's particulate pollution they are after, they should be acting against the factories, construction sites and quarries.

2.Or if they are serious about the pollution. Implement measures to measure and curb Co2 emission, rather than going behind hackneyed measures of engine sizes.


So by this measure, a well maintained 2005 model Merc C220 CDI or Toyota Innova 2.5 is causing more pollution than a 5 year old Ambassador with a tiny 1500cc diesel engine that's spewing out daisies?

P.S: Is this applicable only in Kochi city, or whole of Kerala?

[Mortis]

I have mixed feelings about this. It is good that they are taking some measures to combat pollution but they are approaching it in the wrong way. Hopefully it will lead to launch of some nice turbo petrol engines and hybrid/electronic vehicles.

In other news they are planning on chopping down half the National Park in Mumbai for pointless bullet trains and some new highway.

[StarrySky]

Manorama reports that sale and registration of diesel vehicles above 2000cc is banned (so just as in Delhi). There is no mention of age.

I couldn't find the English version for the link.

EDIT: Manorama has now edited the story heading on their homepage to indicate that the ban applies to vehicles above 10 years old, but the story content has not been changed yet.

[wilful]

I don't think they will be able to go ahead with this. Delhi has gone about it differently, have they? Is it not on new registrations? This one seems a horse of a different colour. I also feel the courts will stay this.

[sun]

Did they not think about the fact that all the mentioned vehicles are registered for 15 years and a similar road tax has been collected ? Banning new vehicles is different thing altogether. And one month for executing this order ? What were they thinking about when they put up with such a directive ? Is this applicable to the KSRTC buses ?

[greenhorn]

Almost half the KSRTC Fleet, along with other private buses and CV's will be worthless in kerala overnight (including their associated permits etc)

This is going to be appealed against by almost everybody, and nothing's going to happen, hopefully. Else expect city services to be hit hard, especially in trivandrum. Unlike other states where the long distance and city fleets are purchased seperately, All new KSRTC buses go to long distance duty, and then are phased into smaller city runs, at the end of which they're retired, so a disproportionately large amount of them are older buses. The capital will be hit the hardest, and hopefully people will take note