“In light of this, the Supreme Court order banning private diesel passenger vehicles and SUVs of 2,000 cc engine capacity and above, is most unfortunate”, SIAM said in a statement. This will prove to be a body blow to many diesel auto manufacturers as Delhi and NCR account for a substantial portion of diesel vehicle sales every month.
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Automobile dealers in Delhi were facing a pile-up of stocks as sales plummeted following the recent NGT order banning registration of diesel cars as part of measures to clean up the abysmal air quality in the capital, which has been between “poor” and “hazardous” levels for several weeks now.
The order comes days after the Delhi government announced a radical road rationing formula - to be implemented from 1 January under which odd- and even-numbered cars will have to stay off the roads on alternate days.
India’s top court yesterday imposed a temporary ban on new diesel-guzzling sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and other luxury cars in New Delhi.
According to brokerage firm Nirmal Bang, M&M, Tata Motors and Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) will be hit the most as they offer over 2,000 cc engine capacity diesel car/SUV models. For instance, the smallest diesel engine for segment leader Mercedes is 2,143cc. Air pollution contributes to more than 600,000 deaths each year in India. If reducing pollution was the court’s aim, then it should have promoted use of BS IV vehicles and restricted use of older vehicles as the emissions from one old vehicle are equivalent to that from five new ones.
“Our order of October 9, 2015 imposing the environment compensation charge (ECC) was in the same spirit meant to act as a restraint against vehicles not bound for Delhi entering Delhi”.
Commercial vehicles which are not Delhi bound will not be allowed to enter the national capital through entry points National Highway 8 and National Highway 1. It asserted that it would not allow the rich to buy such vehicles that pollute the air and affect public health.
The Delhi government said that vacuum cleaning of Delhi roads will be done from April 2016 at regular intervals.
Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, said on Twitter his company would honour the court’s decision.
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After pronouncing the landmark decision to save Delhi from alarming levels of pollution, the Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, Justices AK Sikri and R Banumathi said, “Next time we will deal with lower variant diesel cars”.
