New Delhi: To streamline motor vehicles related issues like technology, fuel and emissions, a separate Transport Department has been proposed to be carved out of the Road Transport and Highways Ministry, and will be headed by a separate Secretary.
"We are preparing a proposal to carve out a separate Transport Department, headed by a separate Secretary. We will send the proposal for approval to the Cabinet and the Prime Minister soon," Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told PTI.
Gadkari said the step is intended to streamline issues related to motor vehicles as its gamut is huge and involves issues ranging from fuel technology to motor body specifications, fuel emissions, among other aspects.
"The area is mammoth and we want to chart a roadmap for quicker development of the sector. The idea behind is also to end corruption and make the functioning of the Ministry and departments transparent, accomplishing tasks in a time-bound manner," Gadkari said.
The Minister said streamlining these issues was essential in the wake of the mammoth task of regularising vehicles and ensuring compliance of emission norms.
According to Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures, the industry produced a total of 23,366,246 vehicles, including passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, three-wheelers and two-wheelers in April-March 2015 as against 21,500,165 in April-March 2014, registering a growth of 8.68 per cent over the same period last year.
He said the separate department will be tasked to ensure faster growth of the sector and would ensure that vehicle emission norms are complied with.
As per the original timeline of the Auto Fuel Policy, BS IV is to be adopted across the country by 2017, BS V by 2020 and BS VI by 2024, respectively.
Last week, the Minister had urged automobile manufactures to comply with advanced vehicle emission norms, saying it will minimise pollution.
The move to carve out a separate department also assumes significance in view of the government's plan to come out with a policy offering financial incentives of up to Rs 1.5 lakh for surrendering vehicles that are over 10 years old to check pollution and ease traffic.
A proposal in this regard is being formulated and the Finance Ministry's nod will be sought on the same.
Gadkari said there is an urgent need to recycle more than 10-years-old vehicles running on roads with old technology which lack not only safety norms but also create pollution.
He has urged the manufactures to build Euro 6 compliant vehicles as early as possible, saying pollution is a big concern for India.
Gadkari said, "National Green Tribunal has already given a decision on pollution... Manufactures are now seeking time of four to five years. They can, as early as possible, go to the mark of Euro 5 and 6 and I suggest if they could go for Euro 6."
The Minister has also called upon foreign manufactures to supply bio-fuel based quality buses at economical prices given the fact that India is a huge market for them.
"We have 1,50,000 buses here. In your country, you have 2,000-4,000 buses. Buses here are in lakhs and given the economic viability, you can consider supplying good quality vehicles at reasonable prices," he said.
Besides, Gadkari has asked manufactures to build vehicles based on bio-fuels like bio-ethanol, saying the government will incentivise such vehicles.
India spends a huge Rs 8 lakh crore annually on import of crude and efforts are on to check it and promote ethanol in states like Uttar Pradesh which will also hugely benefit farmers, he added.
