In a major push to combat toxic air, Delhi's enforcement agencies have seized nearly 7,800 old and polluting vehicles in just three months. The crackdown, targeting vehicles violating strict anti-pollution rules, highlights the city's ongoing battle against one of its primary pollution sources.
Three-Month Crackdown: Impounds and Millions in Fines
Since October 1, 2025, authorities have impounded 7,789 end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) found operating on Delhi's roads in defiance of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) stages III and IV. This stringent action is part of a wider drive that has seen over 12 lakh (1.2 million) vehicles slapped with challans for various pollution-related offences in the same period.
The data reveals the scale of daily enforcement. On a single day, January 1, 2026, officials issued challans to 6,596 vehicles. On average, more than 10,000 vehicles are penalized daily in the national capital for flouting pollution norms. A key offence is running a vehicle without a valid Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC), which attracts a stiff penalty of Rs 10,000.
The Legal Backdrop and the Scrapping Drive
The campaign against old vehicles is rooted in directives from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Supreme Court. Following their orders, the Delhi Transport Department announced in December 2021 the deregistration of all diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years.
The process to deregister these ELVs began in January 2022, and so far, over 55 lakh (5.5 million) such vehicles have been deregistered in Delhi. The physical removal of these vehicles has also intensified. While 22,397 old vehicles were impounded in 2023, the number jumped to 39,273 in 2024, with these vehicles subsequently being scrapped.
Policy Shifts and Ongoing Challenges
The enforcement landscape has seen recent modifications. After coming to power in February 2025, the BJP government in Delhi rationalised norms, lifting a mandatory one-year limit for obtaining a No-Objection Certificate to move ELVs to other states without such bans.
Subsequently, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) planned to ban fuel supply to ELVs from July 1, 2025. However, the Delhi government requested this ban be put "on hold" citing operational challenges, leading the CAQM to also announce a temporary halt to impounding. Last month, the Supreme Court modified its order, clarifying that coercive action is permissible against vehicles with models below the BS-IV emission standard.
The urgency of the issue was underscored in an October 2025 meeting at the PMO, where vehicular emissions were flagged as a key concern for the National Capital Region (NCR). The NCR has nearly 2.97 crore vehicles, growing at 7% annually. Delhi alone holds over half of this vehicle stock despite occupying just 2.7% of NCR's area. Alarmingly, 37% of the total vehicles in Delhi-NCR are still older BS-I and BS-III models, which are significant polluters.
With vehicular emissions contributing 25% to 30% of Delhi's deadly air pollution, the drive against polluting vehicles remains a critical, if complex, component of the city's clean air strategy.
