Overage vehicles registered anywhere in India to be denied fuel in Delhi from July 1: CAQM

New Delhi: All end-of-life (EOL) vehicles -- diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years — irrespective of the states they are registered in, will not be given fuel in Delhi starting July 1, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has said.

The CAQM issued directions to fuel stations in April, saying no EOL vehicle should be given fuel from July 1.

A total of 500 out of 520 fuel stations in Delhi have installed Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras and the rest will be covered by June 30.

These cameras will detect vehicles older than 10 years (diesel) or 15 years (petrol) and an alert will be sounded to the command centre and enforcement teams comprising traffic and transport department officials which will impound the vehicles.

This mechanism will be rolled out in five high-vehicle-density districts adjoining Delhi, including Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar and Sonipat, from November 1 this year, with the installation of ANPR cameras to be completed by October 31.

The remaining NCR districts have been given time till March 31, 2026, to install the cameras, with fuel denial for EOL vehicles starting April 1, 2026.

"Our directions do not say that only EOL vehicles registered in Delhi will be detected and denied fuel. Vehicles registered outside Delhi-NCR also ply on Delhi roads and contribute to pollution. If (Delhi) people register their vehicles outside... that has to be deterred. We know that this is happening," Virinder Sharma, Member (Technical), CAQM, said on Friday.

EOL buses registered anywhere in India will be detected through this mechanism. However, separate directions will be issued to curb their movement in Delhi-NCR, he said.

Sharma said 100 enforcement teams comprising officials from traffic and transport departments have been set up.

Strict action will be taken against fuel stations found flouting the directions under relevant provisions of law, he said.

The CAQM shared that there are 62 lakh EOL vehicles in Delhi, of which 41 lakh are two-wheelers. The number of EOL vehicles in the entire NCR stands at around 44 lakh and these are largely concentrated in the five high-density cities.

According to Sharma, the ANPR cameras, linked with the VAHAN database, will identify old vehicles or those without valid pollution certificates.

He said fuel stations must refuse fuel to such vehicles from the specified dates and authorities must take immediate legal action, including impounding and scrapping, under the Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF) Rules. There is also an option to obtain an NOC to take overage vehicles outside Delhi and use them there.

Traffic surveillance systems and Integrated Command Control Centres will be used to detect and act against these vehicles on roads.

The directions come amid poor progress in removing old, polluting vehicles from the NCR despite previous orders from the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal.