Two Lakh 'Dead Vehicles' Pile Up In Jammu Kashmir Sans Scrapping Policy

Srinagar: At least two lakh end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) have piled up in Jammu and Kashmir as the government has yet to implement a vehicle scrapping policy in the union territory. This happens despite the Centre offering Rs 3,000 crore to states in incentives annually with a clear mandate to phase out unfit vehicles.

The government of India introduced a vehicle scrappage policy in 2021 to weed out old and unfit vehicles from roads across the country. The policy stipulates setting up a Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF) and automated testing for checking the fitness of vehicles and scrapping to phase out unfit and polluting vehicles. But four years later, Jammu and Kashmir is yet to roll out its scrapping policy, which could allow the union territory to set up RVSF and offer monetary benefits to owners of scrapped vehicles.

For setting up RSVF, the central government offered support of Rs 2,000 crore annually to the state governments until 2023. In the last fiscal year, it was raised to Rs 3,000 crore, with 84 RVSFs operating in the country until January this year, causing Jammu and Kashmir to lose out on these central grants.

“Two lakh end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) are abandoned in Jammu and Kashmir because of no scrapping policy. People don’t know what to do with these vehicles, and a few go all the way to Delhi to scrap their vehicles,” said Sanjay Aggarwal, who heads the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), India's apex national body of the automobile retail industry.

The scrappage policy mandates that all government vehicles over 15 years to be classified as end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) and hence scrapped. Similarly, it is effective on commercial and private vehicles.

The policy offers a rebate of 25 per cent in motor vehicle tax on the purchase of a new vehicle to those who scrap their old vehicles. For commercial vehicles, the discount stands at 15 per cent.

Besides, the scrap value for the old vehicle is given by the government-approved scrapping centre, which is approximately 4-6 per cent of the ex-showroom price of a new vehicle. Also, the owner of a scrapped vehicle can get a discount of 5 per cent on the purchase of a new vehicle against the scrapping certificate.

At present, the J&K government offers a subsidy policy of Rs 5 lakh on passenger buses and minibuses under its policy, allowing owners to replace old and unfit vehicles.

But the lack of scrapping facilities is forcing transporters to abandon their vehicles as junk or sell them to scrap dealers in lieu of money, said Shabir Ahmad Matt, a senior J&K transport union leader.

A small percentage of private owners also sell their ELVs or unfit vehicles to local scrap dealers at a cheaper price in the region. But Aggarwal sees this practice as “illegal,” saying the law mandates scrapping of unfit vehicles following a standard procedure to boost the economy and cut pollution.

Official data estimates suggest that the number of registered vehicles touched over 27 lakh in December 2024, up from nearly 15 lakh in 2017, registering an annual growth of 10 per cent. This includes older vehicles that have reached the end of their life in other places, particularly Delhi, but are being sold at low prices in the region.

While the transport authorities only register older BS4 and BS6 vehicles and charge them 9 per cent road tax, a proposal levying an environmental cess on secondhand vehicles older than 10 years at the time of allocation of Jammu and Kashmir registration is awaiting approval.

On his part, J&K Transport Commissioner Vishesh Pal Mahajan said that they had readied a draft scrapping policy, but it required some changes. “Now, the policy is under consideration by the government with the fresh changes. The changes were mandated due to land requirements and other things in the Union Territory,” he told ETV Bharat.

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