No fuel for overage vehicles in NCR districts from Nov

In a decisive step to curb vehicular pollution, the Haryana Government will implement a ban on the sale of fuel to End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) in its National Capital Region (NCR) districts — Gurugram, Faridabad, and Sonepat — from November this year.

The move mirrors the Delhi Government's enforcement, which comes into effect from July 1, and is part of a broader plan to ensure stricter compliance with existing norms that bar 10-year-old diesel vehicles and 15-year-old petrol vehicles from plying in the NCR.

Despite existing restrictions, overage vehicles continue to operate across NCR towns in Haryana, contributing significantly to air pollution, officials said.

To tackle this, the Haryana Transport Department has devised a tech-enabled road map to phase out ELVs and support a transition to sustainable mobility.

“We are preparing to implement this enforcement latest by November. Fuel stations will be equipped with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, which will flag ELVs through a central surveillance system,” said TL Satya, Commissioner and Secretary to the Government, Haryana Transport Department.

These ANPR cameras will be linked to the VAHAN database and serve as part of a real-time surveillance system feeding into Command and Control Centres. Once a vehicle is identified as an ELV or found lacking a valid Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC), an audio alert will be triggered to notify the fuel station operator, allowing for immediate action such as denial of fuel, issuing challans or impounding.

“This is part of a comprehensive action plan rolled out by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to reduce vehicular pollution in NCR. The enforcement will be rolled out gradually, and we aim to phase out overage vehicles from this year. We recently had a meeting with the Chief Minister to discuss the finer details of the project,” Satya Prakash told The Tribune.

The department is also planning to hold meetings with fuel station operators across the affected districts to ensure smooth implementation.

Currently, around 520 fuel stations in Delhi are already equipped with ANPR cameras, setting a precedent for Haryana’s rollout. Similar restrictions will also be implemented in Uttar Pradesh NCR districts from April 1, 2026.

It’s worth noting that Gurugram, Faridabad and Sonepat suffer from poor air quality for nearly six months a year, falling under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) measures. Multiple studies have cited vehicular emissions as one of the major contributors to deteriorating air quality in the region.