Delhi De-registered Over 50 Lakh Old Vehicles In 2022: Report

The Delhi Transport department deregistered over 50 lakh vehicles in 2022, as per official data. This makes it the highest number of de-registrations in a single year. Overall, the government body de-registered over 53 lakh vehicles between 2018 and October 2022. These vehicles had reached their respective end of life and as per norms, diesel vehicles have a 10-year age limit while petrol vehicles have a 15-year age limit in the national capital.

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The Delhi government has been aggressive about the implementation of the Supreme Court ruling in 2018. The ruling made deregistering old vehicles mandatory in a bid to curb vehicular pollution. The move also aims to boost the scrapping of old vehicles plying on Delhi roads and for customers to purchase new cars that meet the latest emission regulations.

Official data suggests that out of the 53,38,045 lakh vehicles de-registered so far, about 46 lakh vehicles were petrol and only 4.15 lakh were diesel. About 1.46 lakh vehicles were CNG. The report further states that about 13.4 million vehicles are currently plying in Delhi, as of January 31, 2022. However, only 7.8 million vehicles are presently categorised as 'active', which makes them technically fit to ply in the city.

If you are vehicle has completed the 10-year (diesel) or 15-year (petrol) age limit, it will be automatically deregistered as per the norms. However, if you would like to drive your vehicle beyond the permissible age, you need to get a fitness certificate for the vehicle to prevent it from being scrapped. Back in May 2022, the Delhi Transport Department issued a public notice for owners and drivers of vehicles without a valid fitness certificate can be fined up to Rs. 10,000 or sent to prison.

The statement read, "It has been observed by the transport department that many owners or drivers, including transport vehicles belonging to government departments, local bodies and public sector units, are plying transport vehicles without valid fitness certificate which is a gross violation of The Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, 1988 and rules framed their under. According to section 56 of the MV Act, a transport vehicle is not deemed to be validly registered unless it carries a valid certificate of fitness issued by the Transport department of Delhi government."

Owners and drivers of vehicles without a valid fitness certificate will need to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000-5,000 for the first offence and Rs. 5,000- 10,000 for the second and any subsequent offence.