ET BureauNEW DELHI: The government is planning to set up new scrapping centres to tackle the rising problem of an ever-growing population of older cars, especially after the success of its first-of-its-kind scientific recycling unit at Chennai that allows environmental-friendly disposal of older vehicles.
Set up in 2011, the recycling demo unit at the Global Automotive Research Center (GARC), Chennai, can dispose of one vehicle a day, with no harmful residues to the environment. “The pilot project has worked successfully so far, but its limited capacity — a vehicle a day — is a handicap as we try to tackle ageing cars across India,” said a senior government official.
The Chennai centre was set up as a pilot project under the public-private partnership (PPP) initiative to establish a modern automotive recycling plant in India. A joint initiative by the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ at Oragdum, Chennai was created to develop a fully automated vehicle scrapping unit.
Currently, there are no regulations in India to deal with the disposal of automobiles, but there's an emphasis to make scrapping of vehicles safer and environmentfriendly, said government sources. Recycling of vehicles has gained momentum after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered a ban on 10-year old diesel and 15-year old petrol cars in the NCR.
A measure that's being contemplated is to confirm the (EVL) – end of lifecycle – of all cars, a move that’s going to help scrapping of vehicles without any waste. Currently, few manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda among others have vehicles confirming to EVL norms.
“It allows majority of vehicles to meet the environmental norms during scrapping. Almost 85-90% of vehicles can be reused after scrapping unlike the current practice of cutting vehicles for scrap by the unorganized sector. They use old and crude techniques that pollute the environment, and give very low yields. Once technology is upgraded and modern facilities are in place, there would be higher margins with higher volumes for scrapping,” said a senior Maruti Suzuki executive.
According to initial estimates, the ban on diesel vehicles — over 10 year old in Delhi — by NGT is likely to affect about 1.19 lakh privately registered diesel cars and about 35,000 commercial vehicle owners in Delhi alone.
According to experts, most of these vehicles would need to be scrapped and it is here that the first scientific car scrapping facility like the one in Chennai come handy. Also, a modernization programme is expected to incentivize customers to trade off their older cars with new.
Set up in 2011, the recycling demo unit at the Global Automotive Research Center (GARC), Chennai, can dispose of one vehicle a day, with no harmful residues to the environment. “The pilot project has worked successfully so far, but its limited capacity — a vehicle a day — is a handicap as we try to tackle ageing cars across India,” said a senior government official.
The Chennai centre was set up as a pilot project under the public-private partnership (PPP) initiative to establish a modern automotive recycling plant in India. A joint initiative by the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ at Oragdum, Chennai was created to develop a fully automated vehicle scrapping unit.
Currently, there are no regulations in India to deal with the disposal of automobiles, but there's an emphasis to make scrapping of vehicles safer and environmentfriendly, said government sources. Recycling of vehicles has gained momentum after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered a ban on 10-year old diesel and 15-year old petrol cars in the NCR.
A measure that's being contemplated is to confirm the (EVL) – end of lifecycle – of all cars, a move that’s going to help scrapping of vehicles without any waste. Currently, few manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda among others have vehicles confirming to EVL norms.
“It allows majority of vehicles to meet the environmental norms during scrapping. Almost 85-90% of vehicles can be reused after scrapping unlike the current practice of cutting vehicles for scrap by the unorganized sector. They use old and crude techniques that pollute the environment, and give very low yields. Once technology is upgraded and modern facilities are in place, there would be higher margins with higher volumes for scrapping,” said a senior Maruti Suzuki executive.
According to initial estimates, the ban on diesel vehicles — over 10 year old in Delhi — by NGT is likely to affect about 1.19 lakh privately registered diesel cars and about 35,000 commercial vehicle owners in Delhi alone.
According to experts, most of these vehicles would need to be scrapped and it is here that the first scientific car scrapping facility like the one in Chennai come handy. Also, a modernization programme is expected to incentivize customers to trade off their older cars with new.
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