100% Electric Vehicles Compulsory For Amazon, Uber, Zomato & Other Aggregators In This City

The Delhi government will ask companies making use of a fleet of cars to fulfil their services to make use of electric vehicles (EV) instead. 

Companies Asked To Make The Switch

The companies it will make the request to include e-commerce companies, food delivery services and cab aggregators.

Vehicles run by aggregators including Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, Uber etc. account for 30 percent of the city’s registered vehicles.

It may also direct petrol pumps to refuse fuel to vehicles without a pollution-under-check (PUC) certificate.

Directions under the Environment (Protection) Act in this regard are expected to be issued this week.

Guidelines Coming Soon

All these measures come amidst the city’s ongoing air pollution crisis of which vehicle emissions account for around 38 percent.

On the matter of whether the aggregators will be given a deadline to make the switch, a senior official in the transport department said that it will be done in phases.

They will also soon publish the draft guidelines.

Companies Pledge To Make EV Switch

The Delhi Electric Vehicles policy, introduced in August 2020, aims at increasing the EV share in total vehicle sales to 25 percent by 2024.

Flipkart and Fedex have declared their targets for converting their last-mile delivery fleets to EVs by 2030 and 2040 respectively.

DHL has set a 60 percent electrification target for its fleet.

Penalty For Invalid PUC

In October, the city government launched a massive drive to check PUC certificates and deployed around 500 teams at petrol pumps for this purpose.

As per Section 190(2) of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1993, vehicle owners can be fined up to Rs 10,000, or imprisoned for up to six months or both for not having a valid PUC.

Vehicle Testing

They are required to get their vehicles tested to check if they meet emission standards for pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, carbon dioxide.

Testing can be done in around 1,000 authorised pollution checking centres set up at petrol pumps and workshops in the city.

Diesel Vehicles Completing 10 And 15 Years

In compliance with the National Green Tribunal’s directions, the Delhi government will deregister all diesel vehicles which will complete 10 years on January 1, 2022.

It will also issue a no objection certificate (NOC) so that they can be re-registered in other places.

However, NOC will be denied for diesel vehicles which have completed 15 years or more on the date of application.

Delhi is the most-polluted capital in the world and is one of the fastest expanding cities in terms of population.

Vehicles contribute to about 40 percent of PM 2.5 emissions in the city.