{"id":106951,"date":"2026-06-06T11:10:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T05:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=106951"},"modified":"2026-06-06T11:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T05:47:28","slug":"delhi-ncrs-clean-mobility-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/delhi-ncrs-clean-mobility-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Delhi-NCR&#8217;s Clean Mobility Scheme: Replacing Old Trucks and Buses to Reduce Air Pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Delhi-NCR&#8217;s Clean Mobility Scheme Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the Union Cabinet approved a two-year Clean Mobility Scheme for Delhi-NCR. The scheme will incentivise owners of older, more polluting trucks and buses to replace them with BS-VI or stricter emission-compliant vehicles.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is expected to benefit owners of around 2.07 lakh vehicles \u2014 1.91 lakh trucks and 16,329 buses. Government vehicles are excluded.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Bharat Stage (BS) Emission Norms<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bharat Stage (BS) standards are emission regulations set by the government to limit the amount of pollutants a vehicle&#8217;s engine can release.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-106972\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramias.sgp1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp\/current-affairs\/2026\/06\/image4-1.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"504\" height=\"186\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BS-VI is the current and strictest standard. It introduced tighter limits on pollutants, mandated cleaner fuels, and required advanced onboard diagnostic systems.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India jumped directly from BS-IV to BS-VI in 2020, skipping BS-V entirely \u2014 a significant leap in emission control.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Why Old Trucks and Buses Are the Problem<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delhi-NCR has <\/span><b>2.98 crore registered vehicles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, growing at 7% per year. The transport sector is one of the dominant sources of pollution \u2014 alongside dust, industrial emissions, and biomass burning.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But not all vehicles pollute equally. Old trucks and buses are disproportionately responsible for a large share of the damage.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>The Numbers Tell the Story<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trucks and buses together account for <\/span><b>36% of PM2.5 emissions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from the transport sector in Delhi-NCR.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>PM2.5<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> refers to fine particulate matter \u2014 particles so tiny they penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, causing serious respiratory and cardiovascular disease.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 2018 study by TERI found that the transport sector accounts for <\/span><b>40% of carbon monoxide<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>63% of nitrogen oxide (NOx)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> emissions in Delhi-NCR.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Why Old Vehicles Are So Much Worse<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A vehicle that is mechanically &#8220;fit&#8221; can still be dangerously polluting if it runs on an old BS standard.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As engines age, parts wear out, combustion becomes incomplete, and emission controls degrade.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Old vehicles also lack modern systems like <\/span><b>diesel particulate filters<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>selective catalytic reduction<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that BS-VI vehicles use to clean exhaust.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pollution gap between old and new vehicles is staggering:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A pre-BS norm heavy-duty vehicle pollutes 14 times more than a BS-VI vehicle.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A BS-IV vehicle emits 2.7 times more than a BS-VI vehicle.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 15-year-old legacy commercial vehicle emits 11 times more PM and 6 times more NOx than a modern BS-VI vehicle.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An old BS-I heavy-duty truck emits up to 35 times more PM than a new BS-VI vehicle.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What the Scheme Proposes<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The scheme incentivises vehicle owners to <\/span><b>voluntarily phase out<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> their older trucks and buses and replace them with cleaner alternatives.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The treatment differs by how old the vehicle is:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BS-III and older vehicles \u2014 Scrapping is mandatory.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BS-IV vehicles \u2014 Owners may either scrap them or sell them outside NCR, but only to areas not covered under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This ensures that older polluting vehicles are not simply relocated from Delhi to other vulnerable cities.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>How This Fits Into India&#8217;s Larger Clean Air Agenda<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This scheme does not stand alone. Several earlier initiatives have worked towards cleaner transport in Delhi-NCR \u2014 the <\/span><b>PM-eBus Sewa scheme<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for electric buses being a prominent example.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/national-clean-air-programme\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, launched in 2019, targets a 40% reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations by 2026 in 131 non-attainment cities \u2014 cities that consistently fail to meet air quality standards.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Clean Mobility Scheme complements these by specifically addressing the legacy vehicle problem.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Broader Pollution Context<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delhi-NCR&#8217;s air pollution is driven by multiple sources \u2014 transport, construction dust, industries, and seasonal factors like crop stubble burning and winter weather conditions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Meteorology <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">matters too. Cold, still winter air traps pollutants near the ground, which is why Delhi&#8217;s pollution peaks in November and December.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/commission-for-air-quality-management\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM)<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 a statutory body set up specifically for Delhi-NCR air quality \u2014 has been monitoring these sources and directing action.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In data submitted to the Supreme Court in December 2025, CAQM confirmed that of the 1.61 lakh buses in Delhi-NCR, only 34,449 are BS-VI compliant \u2014 the rest, over 1.26 lakh buses, fall in the pre-BS to BS-IV category. This is a massive backlog of dirty vehicles.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/delhi-ncr-clean-mobility-scheme-bs4-trucks-buses-air-pollution-10725620\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Delhi-NCR&#8217;s Clean Mobility Scheme aims to phase out old trucks and buses, promote BS-VI vehicles, and reduce PM2.5 emissions in the National Capital Region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":106971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[7991,60,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-106951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-delhi-ncrs-clean-mobility-scheme","9":"tag-mains-articles","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs-tag","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106951"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106980,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106951\/revisions\/106980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}