New Delhi, Sep 25

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Monday urged the country's automobile manufacturers to expedite the setting up of registered vehicle scrapping facilities and extend discounts to consumers who scrap their vehicles at these centres for buying new ones.

Addressing a stakeholder consultation meeting here on Monday, Gadkari said that since the auto industry is the biggest beneficiary of this policy, they must come forward and invest more in scrapping infrastructure.

This includes the setting up of automated fitness testing stations for vehicles (ATSs) and Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities, spreading more awareness amongst citizens about the policy benefits through their dealer network and finalizing the percentage of discount to be offered against certificate of deposit obtained by citizens on scrapping vehicles.

Representatives of all major automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) including Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Kia and Hyundai attended the meeting.

The minister said it is a win-win situation for all. The Ministry has undertaken multiple initiatives to build resilient demand for vehicles such as building a world-class network of highways, Electrification of buses, and mandatory automated fitness testing of vehicles.

Road Transport Secretary Anurag Jain emphasized that Vehicle Scrapping Policy is expected to increase auto sales by about 8 per cent and contribute about 0.5 per cent to the country's GDP and hence, auto OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) must extend unconstrained support to the policy.

Representatives of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) also presented their views on the incentives for citizens through this policy.

Auto dealers and used car aggregators (including Car Dekho, Cars24) attended the event and shared their perspectives on the challenges and actions required to expedite implementation of the vehicle scrapping policy.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had launched the Voluntary Vehicle-Fleet Modernization Program (Vehicle Scrapping Policy) in 2021.

This Policy is aimed at creating an ecosystem for phasing out old, unsafe, polluting vehicles and replacing them with newer, safer, and fuel-efficient vehicles.

Gadkari urges auto makers to speed up work on scrapping centres