India stops fuel sales to old vehicles in New Delhi

Authorities in India’s capital, New Delhi, have stopped fuel stations from selling petrol or diesel to ageing vehicles, as part of efforts to reduce the city’s dangerous air pollution.

New Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted capitals, often faces heavy smog, especially during the cold season.

The thick smoke-like haze regularly covers the city, making the air unsafe for residents.

During the worst pollution periods, levels of PM2.5, tiny particles that can cause cancer and enter the body through the lungs, rise to over 60 times higher than what the World Health Organization considers safe for a single day.

This new measure builds on a 2018 ruling by the Supreme Court of India, which had already banned petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles older than 10 years from moving on the city’s roads.

By cutting off fuel supply to these older cars, the government hopes to reduce the toxic emissions and improve air quality for millions living in the capital.

But millions flout the rules.

According to official figures, over six million such vehicles are plying the city’s streets.

The ban that came into force on Tuesday seeks to keep them off the roads by barring them from refuelling.

Police and municipal workers were deployed at fuel stations across Delhi, where number plate-recognising cameras and loudspeakers were installed.

“We have been instructed to call in scrap car dealers if such vehicles come in,” said a traffic policeman posted at a fuelling station in the city.

From November, the ban will be extended to satellite cities around the capital, an area home to more than 32 million people.

A study in the Lancet medical journal attributed 1.67 million premature deaths in India to air pollution in 2019.

Each winter, vehicle and factory emissions couple with farm fires from surrounding states to wrap the city in a dystopian haze.

Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds worsen the situation by trapping deadly pollutants.

Piecemeal government initiatives, such as partial restrictions on fossil fuel-powered transport and water trucks spraying mist to clear particulate matter from the air, have failed to make a noticeable impact.