Vehicles over 15 yrs old: State to set up scrap yards across Bengal

SOUMITRA NANDI | MP | 15 Apr 2023 | Kolkata: The state Transport department has initiated the process of setting up scrap yards across the state in order to phase out vehicles that are of above 15 years old. 

The move is a part of the state adopting scrap policy in adherence to the directions of the Central government and the green bench in this regard to curb pollution. “We have issued notice for setting up scrap yards in PPP mode and some companies have already evinced interest. 

We will soon go for wide advertisement. Those who will be found eligible for having the expertise of scrapping will be given the license for setting up scrap factories. After scrapping, the company will be issuing a certificate to the vehicle owner and when he will buy a new one, he will get a subsidy in the tax for the vehicle,” Snehasish Chakraborty, state Transport minister said. 

He added that necessary instructions have been issued to start the process of scrapping vehicles within the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) jurisdictional area. “Scrapping will now be optional in non-KMDA areas. It will also be optional for owners of private vehicles,” the minister said. 

The state government believes in not forcing a private vehicle owner to scrap his vehicle which is over 15 years old. “There are heritage vehicles owned by persons that are many years old. 

A middle-class person who bought a car many years back, may not have the purse strings to buy a new one after scrapping his vehicle. So we feel that it is inhuman to impose the scrapping policy and have kept it optional,” an official of the Transport department said. Kolkata has close to 2.19 lakh commercial vehicles while the state has close to 6.98 vehicles that are above 15 years old.

The minister said that his department is adopting new software for accurately checking of pollution of vehicles. The state Transport department has increased its revenue collection by over Rs 700 crore in the 2022-23 financial year. 

“Our revenue was Rs 2600 last year (2021-22) and this year it has gone upto Rs 3353 (2022-23). We expect that it will cross Rs 4000 crore next year,” the minister said. The minister in the recent past has been holding meetings in different districts with the transport officials working at the district level taking stock of the situation and further augmentation of the system to ensure passenger amenities. 

Meetings have already been held in Hooghly, Birbhum, East Burdwan and West Burdwan. Senior officials of the district administration as well as the district magistrates are also present in such meetings. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/smart-cards-for-driving-licence-registration-docu-likely-to-be-back-515408?infinitescroll=1