City to phase out diesel autos

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 17 

The State Transport Authority  (STA)  has decided to phase out the remaining diesel-run autos in the city. 

Sources said the Transport Department had recently approved a policy under which owners of diesel-run autos would be given a subsidy of Rs 30,000 to replace their autos with LPG or CNG-run autos.

KK Jindal, Secretary, Transport Department,  said the policy had been approved with a view to making Chandigarh free of diesel autos. This would ensure a clean and pollution-free environment. 

The owners can avail of the benefit under the policy till December 2017. They will have to submit a certificate that the existing auto has been sold as scrap before applying for the subsidy. The sources said there were around 6,000 auto-rickshaws registered with the STA, which included those running on diesel. With the efforts of the STA, the number of diesel-run autos has gone down in the past few years, but around 300 autos were still running on diesel.  

 Kirron Kher, MP, had raised the issue of diesel-run autos of other states entering the city and had asked the officers concerned to take the desired steps to check pollution at a meeting of the STA.

While the STA has banned the registration of new diesel-run autos, the problem of autos coming from neighboring states continues. The STA has decided to intensify the drive against the illegal plying of diesel-run auto-rickshaws.

The Administration had banned the entry of diesel-run auto-rickshaws into Chandigarh two years ago in view of the pollution caused by these. But despite this, autos continue to run on city roads.

More CNG stations sought

Owners of diesel-run autos have asked the Administration to ensure enough CNG stations.  HS Sahni,  president of the Chandigarh Auto-rickshaw Union, said at least five new CNG filling stations should be opened to cater to the demand of auto owners. He demanded action against owners of autos plying illegally in the city.