Starting July 1, Delhi to enforce fuel ban on ELVs using high-tech cams

To crack down on polluting vehicles, Delhi will stop selling fuel to end of life vehicles (ELVs) from July 1. To enforce this, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) announced that automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras have been installed at all 520 fuel stations across the city, linked directly to the central VAHAN database to screen vehicles in real time.

After a vehicle pulls into a fuel station, the ANPR system will scan its number plate and instantly check it against the central VAHAN database for registration details, fuel type, and age. If the vehicle exceeds the permissible limit, 10 years for diesel and 15 years for petrol, it will be flagged as an ELV.

“All pumps are now covered. The trial run has been on since December, and we’re ready to go live,” said Virinder Sharma, technical member of CAQM.

“Once identified, an announcement will be made at the station, and the staff will inform the driver that fuel cannot be provided,” Sharma said.

The rule will initially apply to Delhi from July 1 and to five high-traffic NCR cities—Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, and Sonepat—from November 1. Other NCR cities will follow in phases.

ELV bans were first mandated by the National Green Tribunal in 2015 and reinforced by the Supreme Court in 2018, but full-scale enforcement had lagged.