Adequate infrastructure is essential to make electric vehicles and scrapage policies a success

The government is working on several fronts to curb vehicle pollution in the country. Which mainly consists of two initiatives. One is the incentives for electric vehicles and the adoption of a policy of scrapping old vehicles. The government wants to scrap old heavy commercial vehicles and increase the demand for new vehicles and also to prevent pollution from these vehicles. The government also wants to boost the country's economy by increasing demand for new heavy vehicles. The policy of scrapping old vehicles has been implemented since 202. This policy is applicable for heavy commercial vehicles 18 years of age and above from 1st April 2062 and for landing vehicles older than 60 years of personal use from 1st June 206. The policy, known as the Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernization Program, is expected to accelerate the economy and achieve the goal of reducing pollution. Older vehicles that fail the automated fitness test will be de-registered and will not be able to run on those routes. Vehicle owners will have to choose the option to scrap vehicles. Provision has been made in the scheme to provide some relief to the vehicle owners who opt for this option. In addition to road tax, the government has also announced heavy charges like green tax to stop vehicle owners from owning old vehicles.

The government is serious about curbing vehicle-borne pollution, as indicated, but it will have to meet certain requirements. Apart from the Center, some state standards have also been applied in respect of vehicle tax. Therefore, the full cooperation of the states is the first requirement for the full implementation of this policy. It is still unclear how much confidence the states have been placed in when formulating the new policy. In addition there is no evidence that there are adequate scraping centers in the country. Automated fitness centers will also have to be set up to test vehicles. If one fitness center is to be set up in each district, then 216 centers have to be set up in the country. In addition, numerous scraping centers with large spaces are also required.

According to an estimate, 3 million light vehicles older than 20 years and 3 lakh vehicles older than 15 years run on the country's roads. In order to make the scrapping policy a success, it is necessary to adopt pragmatism in providing incentives to the vehicle owners.

Okata pollution from vehicles is also largely responsible for global warming. As far as India is concerned, about 12 per cent of Okata carbon is emitted by vehicles inside the country. The spread of vehicles will be significant within 2020 to 20 years, i.e. by 2020. In such a situation, if an environmentally safe policy is not implemented for vehicles, the level of carbon emissions from vehicles could reach alarming levels.

More than 80 per cent of the goods in the country and more than 5 per cent of the landings are transported by road. In such a situation, the spread of electric vehicles in the country remains necessary. Electric vehicles can play a big role in preventing the spread of pollution through vehicles. In our country, the attraction towards small electric vehicles like two wheelers and three wheelers is increasing rapidly. The use of small electric vehicles for short distances may be acceptable, but bringing all types of vehicles into the power segment is not affordable. Renewable energy needs to be developed in electric vehicles as well, otherwise the conversion of vehicles into electric vehicles may increase the demand for electricity, and increased use of conventional power sources such as coal may lead to pollution.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers Associations (SIAM) has opposed the government's proposal to reduce the import duty on imported electric vehicles to increase the number of electric vehicles in the country. Any such decision would affect domestic vehicle manufacturers, SIAM claimed. The government is defending that there is no problem in reducing the duty as the production of electric vehicles is not very large in India at present. Thus, increasing the spread of electric vehicles in the country will not be easy for the government.

Large vehicles such as buses and heavy duty trucks can be easily converted to electric vehicles. Consumption of LNG in vehicles instead of petrol and diesel not only increases India's import dependence but also zero carbon. In such a situation, in addition to the scrapping policy of large vehicles in India, the movement of goods must be done through other means such as railways rather than heavy vehicles. An increase in alternative transport services such as metro rail service would be beneficial to reduce the use of private vehicles to control pollution from vehicles. The use of technology to curb vehicle-borne pollution in the country has also become a matter of time.