Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday (July 23, 2025) that the ban on the use of old diesel and petrol vehicles has been imposed not by the government, but by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). He said that under the government’s vehicle junk policy, there is no restriction on the running of 15 years old vehicles.
Gadkari told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question that under the NGT’s order of April 7, 2015 and the Supreme Court directions, the National Capital Region (NCR) has been banned from 10 years old diesel and petrol vehicles older than 15 years old. The Supreme Court has directed the state transport departments to implement these orders.
Government’s tough steps on the validity of private vehicles
The Union Minister said that the government has prepared a ‘voluntary vehicle fleet modernization program’ (V-VMP) or a vehicle scraping policy, which aims to remove old and pollution vehicles in order.
Nitin Gadkari further said that the validity of private vehicles outside Delhi-NCR will depend on the fitness certificate issued by the automated testing centers (ATS). However, the maximum validity limit for registered vehicles in the name of governments will be more than 15 years.
What did Gadkari say about national highways?
In a written reply to another question, Nitin Gadkari said that 13,795 ‘black spots’ have been identified on national highways so far. Repair of ‘Black Spot’ is a continuous process and short -term improvements are made on immediate basis. Out of these, short -term improvement works have been done on 11,866 ‘Black Spot’, while long -term improvement work has been completed at 5,324 places.
In response to another question, Gadkari said that the estimated cost of Dehradun-Delhi Access Controlled Highway Project is Rs 11,868.6 crore and a target is to be completed by October 2025.
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