A similar ban is being considered in 11 more cities across India. The ban is now in force only in the National Capital Region (NCR).
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Before a final decision is made, NGT wants the Central Pollution Control Board to provide city-wise comprehensively detailed data about vehicle density, pollution area, population density and pollution levels.
A comprehensive report was submitted to NGT in January which listed 15 cities, the air quality of these cities didn’t quite met the prescribe standard.
According to the Economic Times report, the NGT, on May 24, had said: “The directions passed in regard to NCT (National Capital Territory) would safely be applied to all these cities”.
The NGT has also asked states to submit response to three questions – Which is the worst polluted city of the state?; give the number of vehicles in the city and provide a breakdown of petrol and diesel vehicles; and what is the current population of the worst polluted city?
“If the states fail to produce the data by tomorrow, we will issue bailable warrants against the chief secretaries of all states”. The industry says a wide ban on large diesel vehicles will make the investment made by several auto makers useless and also lead to production and job losses.
Extending the ban countrywide would basically stop production of all large diesel vehicles, said Vishnu Mathur, directorgeneral of Siam. The cities are: Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Patna, Lucknow, Allahabad, Kanpur, Varanasi, Nagpur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Pune.
Hearing on the matter will resume tomorrow. Post the hearing the NGT will take a decision on whether to impose a ban on older vehicles and a ban on registration of new diesel vehicles in these cities.
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In contrast to the prior NGT order banning registration of all diesel vehicles, the Supreme Court on December 16 exempted small ones and specified that the diesel-run SUVs and cars having engine capacity beyond 2000 cc would not be registered in Delhi and National Capital Region.
