Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday (July 23, 2025) that the ban on the use of old diesel and petrol vehicles has been imposed not by the government, but by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). He said that under the government’s vehicle junk policy, there is no restriction on the running of 15 years old vehicles.

Gadkari told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question that under the NGT’s order of April 7, 2015 and the Supreme Court directions, the National Capital Region (NCR) has been banned from 10 years old diesel and petrol vehicles older than 15 years old. The Supreme Court has directed the state transport departments to implement these orders.

Government’s tough steps on the validity of private vehicles

The Union Minister said that the government has prepared a ‘voluntary vehicle fleet modernization program’ (V-VMP) or a vehicle scraping policy, which aims to remove old and pollution vehicles in order.

Nitin Gadkari further said that the validity of private vehicles outside Delhi-NCR will depend on the fitness certificate issued by the automated testing centers (ATS). However, the maximum validity limit for registered vehicles in the name of governments will be more than 15 years.

What did Gadkari say about national highways?

In a written reply to another question, Nitin Gadkari said that 13,795 ‘black spots’ have been identified on national highways so far. Repair of ‘Black Spot’ is a continuous process and short -term improvements are made on immediate basis. Out of these, short -term improvement works have been done on 11,866 ‘Black Spot’, while long -term improvement work has been completed at 5,324 places.

In response to another question, Gadkari said that the estimated cost of Dehradun-Delhi Access Controlled Highway Project is Rs 11,868.6 crore and a target is to be completed by October 2025.

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Ngt big action on chromium pollution: The villages of UP, which are facing a serious problem of chromium pollution, now seem to get relief soon. Expressing strong displeasure over the negligence of UP government officials in the NGT, he has directed the Chief Secretary of UP to take immediate and effective steps in the villages affected by chromium pollution.

In fact, this case is related to the Chromium dump spread in Rania Mand and Fatehpur District of Kanpur countryside and Fatehpur District. Where the villagers are troubled by the lack of drinking water and health problems.

NGT has given important orders
The bench of Justice Prakash Srivastava and A Senthil Bill, who is presiding over the NGT, said during the hearing of the case that there is no adequate water supply for drinking and other work in these villages of Kanpur. In the same random blood test conducted in Dharauli village of Fatehpur District, the presence of heavy metals like chromium and mercury has been affected by health. During the hearing of the case, the NGT said that now is the time to take immediate steps in this matter. The NGT said that we feel that there was a huge shortage in this matter of serious efforts till now and the officials may not understand the seriousness of this issue till now. The NGT said that the supply of clean drinking water should be ensured immediately to the victim villagers and we should also take measures to prevent the spread of chromium.

Amicus Curie gave important information in NGT
Advocate Katyayani in NGT which has been appointed as Amicus Curie in this case. He informed about the condition of the village and the apathy of the administration in the NGT. After this, the NGT also directed that the UP government should provide all possible medical assistance to the villagers and proper investigation should be made in the district so that the impact on health can be detected in time. At present, the NGT will now hold the next hearing in this case on 1 July. However, the NGT has also asked the UP government to file a status report in this matter.