MoRTH sets up new committee to frame policies for taxi operators

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has constituted a three member committee to prepare a policy framework for taxi and other transport operators. The committee will be headed by the secretary of MoRTH and have joint secretary and Delhi transport commissioner as its members. 

A group of taxi and other transport operators had met the Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari, yesterday, apprising him of the situation that has emerged following the Supreme Court’s order dated December 15, 2015 and directions of EPCA dated April 29, 2016, banning diesel taxis in the NCR, and the various problems they are facing as a result of the ban. The ministry has decided to set up the three member committee to look into these issues and come up with appropriate policy recommendations to address the same in a time bound manner. 

The conversion of diesel cabs to CNG was mandated by March 31, 2016 but on a petition for reconsideration it was rejected by the Supreme Court in its latest order of April 30, making it mandatory for diesel taxis to convert to CNG from May 1 if they wanted to have a free run in the Delhi-NCR.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), representing vehicle manufacturers and engine makers in India, had pointed out that according to a recent study conducted by IIT Kanpur all types of passenger cars as a whole contributed only 2 percent of the PM 2.5 pollution load in the NCT. Of this 2 percent, all diesel cars contributed only 1.5 percent of the PM 2.5 pollution load. Further BS-IV diesel cars contributed only 0.5 percent of PM 2.5 emissions and since the automotive industry had made significant investments in the diesel technology in line with the investment policies of the government, placing bans on a legally compliant industry is tantamount to an infringement of the fundamental right to do business in the country. 

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