Nath plans to put old cars to test

New Delhi, Nov. 25: The government on Wednesday said it may soon come out with an inspection and certification regime for old vehicles to check vehicular pollution.

“India and East Asian countries are on a growth trajectory and are adding to their vehicle fleet. But we don’t want to grow as the Western countries grew. The problem is, we in India have a large number of old vehicles and the government may soon put in place an inspection and certification regime to check emission,” the transport minister, Mr Kamal Nath, said.

“We have substantially reduced the gap between European and Indian regulations and we are examining recommendations of a committee, set up to provide guidelines for regulations to check emissions,” Mr Nath said at a symposium organised jointly by the UN Environment Programme, ITF, IEA and the FIA Foundation.

He said achieving the target to reduce emissions from cars by 50 per cent by 2050 is a challenge.