34 lakh vehicles, more than 15 years old, ply in Bengaluru

Bengaluru : Owners of old private vehicles are showing reluctance to scrap their vehicles through Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities (RVSFs). According to the Vahan portal of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the state’s two registered vehicle scrapping facilities have received only 2,531 requests for scrapping old vehicles till November 22.

As per the scrapping policy announced by the state government in 2022, two RVSFs are functioning in the state. One is in Koratagere, Tumkur, and the other is in Vijayapura, near Devanahalli. However, these two have mostly destroyed vehicles belonging to government agencies. The number of private vehicles is rare, an RVSF staff member informed. Uttar Pradesh, which has 66 RVSFs, has received 33,000 applications for scrapping vehicles this year. “Most of the vehicles we scrap are from government agencies. This number will increase if the central government makes it mandatory to scrap vehicles that are over 20 years old, said a police officer.

The government will provide an incentive of Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000 to those who scrap their old vehicles and buy a new one. RVSFs will issue a ‘Certificate of Deposit (COD)’ after scrapping the vehicle. While buying a new vehicle, you can get a discount by presenting the COD of the old vehicle. In case of a transport vehicle, the discount is 8 years and in case of a non-transport vehicle, the discount is up to 15 years.

According to the transport department, the number of vehicles that are more than 15 years old in the state is 1 crore. Of these, there are 34 lakh vehicles in Bengaluru. This includes 21 lakh two-wheelers and 7 lakh cars. Across the state, there are 69 lakh two-wheelers and 15 lakh cars that are 15 years old.