In a major step to help thousands of vehicle owners and support efforts to reduce air pollution in the capital, the Rekha Gupta-led Delhi Government on Thursday announced a relaxation in the rules for issuing No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for deregistered vehicles.
The government has decided to temporarily suspend the restrictive clause from the Guidelines for Handling End of Life Vehicles in Public Places of Delhi, 2024, which earlier allowed vehicle owners to apply for an NOC only within one year of their vehicle’s registration expiry.
Who is going to benefit?
This change will mainly help owners of diesel vehicles that are more than 10 years old and petrol vehicles that are more than 15 years old. With the new relaxation, they will now be able to get an NOC to re-register their vehicles in other states outside the Delhi-NCR region, no matter how long ago their registration expired.
Under the current Guidelines for Handling End of Life Vehicles in Public Places of Delhi, 2024, vehicle owners are required to apply for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) within one year after their vehicle’s registration expires. During this period, they must either sell or re-register their vehicles in another state.
Delhi Transport Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh told The Indian Express that the one-year limit had created a major backlog, leaving thousands of vehicles stuck in the city. These vehicles were neither being scrapped nor moved out, which added to pollution and traffic problems. He said the new decision would help gradually remove old vehicles from Delhi’s roads, improving air quality and reducing congestion.
Old vehicles to find new roads outside Delhi
The government said this decision was taken after receiving several requests from the public and conducting internal reviews. It also follows the department’s earlier orders from 2021 and 2022, which were issued in line with the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the IE report said.
Officials explained that the move will allow de-registered vehicles to be legally transferred to states where they are still allowed to operate, helping remove such vehicles from Delhi’s environment.
In December 2021, the department had announced that all old diesel and petrol vehicles would be de-registered. The process began in January 2022, and so far, around 50 to 60 lakh end-of-life vehicles have been de-registered in the capital.