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Will India’s Car Scrapping Policy Actually Improve Road Safety?
Car scrapping in India is beneficial for road safety and reducing traffic congestion, says Kiran Kumar Kapila, Chairman, IRF. Here are more details.
Whether India's car scrapping policy is actually beneficial is something which a good majority of road users still do have much idea on. However, Kiran Kumar Kapila, Chairman of IRF (International Road Federation) is in the opinion that scrapping old cars will radically decrease the rate of road fatalities and traffic congestion.
Speaking to ET Auto, Kiran shared, "Once the useful life of the vehicle is completed then it should be scrapped. And this should be done as a part of policy so that these vehicles do not occupy the space unnecessarily and create congestion."
He recently wrote a letter to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways regarding the same, and aims to make a new amendment in the Motor Vehicle Bill 2017. Kiran stated that he cannot raise a particular age figure to distinguish old cars from new, and is best to leave it to the government to decide.
"Almost all the developed countries have a policy framework to dismantle vehicles after a certain age. India still don't have any such regulations. I won't comment on time after which a vehicle should be treated as old, that's something government have to decide but, it is high time that we should have a proper policy in place to make space for the new vehicles that are added every year," commented Kiran Kumar Kapila.
IRF had urged the Indian government multiple times before, to pass the bill to keep the toll of old vehicles in check through scrapping. However, the federation have not received a positive response yet.
As per data from SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers), 26,763,767 new vehicles were sold in India; up by 12.7 per cent from 2017. While this number is on a rapid rise, old vehicles still ply on the road without creating enough room to accompany the new ones.
In a recent letter wrote by Kiran Kumar Kapila to Union Minister, Nitin Gadkari, it was requested to raise the topic in the upcoming Rajya Sabha session, without including the opposed clauses. An update on this is still pending.
Thoughts On India's Car Scrapping Policy
Scrapping of cars older than 15 years might help a bit in controlling traffic congestion and pollution levels, but it is to be noted that not all cars coming under this category are bad. Some of these cars are either of historical importance or are just well-engineered examples of automobiles. What are your suggestions on this? Let us know in the comment section below.
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