Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras have been made operational at 382 fuelling stations in the city to seize end-of-life vehicles (ELVs)—diesel-run vehicles 10 years or older and petrol-run ones 15 years or older—operating illegally in the Capital, officials aware of the matter said, adding that joint teams of transport department, traffic police and civic bodies have been deployed for the purpose. The seized vehicles will directly be sent to a scrapping facility and they will be disposed of as per the Guidelines for Handling of End of Life Vehicle in Public Place 2024, officials said. Number plate recognition cameras at a petrol station in Delhi. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

Starting 6am on Tuesday, when such a vehicle enters a fuel station, ANPR cameras will instantly capture the number and cross-check it with the VAHAN central database, said Virinder Sharma, technical member of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCR.

“If the vehicle is found to be end-of-life, it will be flagged by the system and an announcement will also be made to the fuel operator to deny fuel,” said Sharma.

The violation is also logged simultaneously and shared with enforcement agencies for further action, which includes on-the-spot impounding and subsequent scrapping, he said.

The move comes on a CAQM directive dated April 23, seeking to curb the operation of ELVs to curb pollution, in line with orders issued by the National Green Tribunal and Supreme Court. While a deadline of July 1 was set for Delhi, the order will come into effect on November 1 at Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar and Sonepat across Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. For the rest of NCR, a deadline of April 1, 2026, has been set.

Senior Delhi Traffic Police officers said traffic personnel have been deployed at 89 fuel stations and law-and-order police will also be deployed to curb unruly incidents.

“The deployment of traffic personnel at the petrol pumps will be round-the-clock and in two shifts. At least two traffic personnel will be deployed at each pump in one shift. ANPR cameras with an alarm facility have already been installed at Delhi’s petrol pumps,” additional commissioner of police (traffic) Dinesh Kumar Gupta said.

Another police officer, not wishing to be named, said: “The seized vehicles will be kept at traffic police pits or at the scrap yards of authorised scrap dealers for 15 days, giving their owners time to get them released after paying the penalty and submitting affidavits, mentioning that they will send the vehicles out of Delhi’s jurisdiction and not drive them in the city.”

According to the VAHAN database, there are around 6.2 million ELVs in Delhi, of which 4.1 million are two-wheelers and 1.8 million are four-wheelers. There are 2.75 million, 1.24 million and 610,000 ELVs in the NCR districts of Haryana, UP and Rajasthan, respectively, according to the database.

In a joint press conference of the transport department and traffic police last week, CAQM said that it screened 7.78 million ELVs at fuel stations between June 1 and 23, of which 136,000 were ELVs and 800,000 were operating without valid pollution-under-control certificates (PUCCs). “This data translates to roughly 0.3 million vehicles being screened every day, out of which around 6,000 or so vehicles are ELV and around 35,000 did not have a PUC,” Sharma said at the press conference.

Niharika Rai, secretary-cum-commissioner of the Delhi transport department, says the department is fully prepared to enforce the norms and that at least one official from either the transport department, police or civic body will be deployed. “The ANPR cameras take milliseconds to detect ELVs... The data from these ANPR cameras have also helped us identify vulnerable fuelling stations, where possibly the quantum of ELVs is high,” said Rai.

Rai said that while ELVs will be impounded and taken for scrapping, violators can submit an affidavit in addition to a fine to take back their vehicle. She clarified that CNG vehicles were not part of the plan.

Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta said that the government is working to ensure that the public is not inconvenienced. “We are working for a smooth transition and how to implement it effectively.”

A CAQM official said that besides the arrangements, they asked fuel stations to designate nodal officers for better coordination with enforcement teams. “Adequate number of police personnel will be deployed besides PCR vans, to avoid untoward incidents arising at fuel stations for denial of fuel,” said the official,

The official said that a contact list of officers from the transport department, municipal corporation, traffic police, MoPNG and CAQM was made available at every fuel station. “The transport department’s daily data will be shared with CAQM,” the official added.