Delhi-NCR truck scheme aims for 2 lakh replacements in one year

The Union government wants to replace more than two lakh BS-IV and older trucks and buses in Delhi and the NCR districts of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh within a year. Road Transport secretary V. Umashankar said the PARIVARTAN scheme, approved by the Cabinet on 3 June and launched on 14 July, will not wait for the two-year window ministers first signed. He set an interim mark of 25,000 registrations by the end of October and a working target near 2.3 lakh vehicles in twelve months.

PARIVARTAN stands for Programme for Accelerated Renewal and Incentivisation of Vehicle Assets for Reducing Transport Air Pollution and Network Emissions. The outlay is ₹9,585 crore, of which ₹5,041 crore is central budget support through the National Capital Region Planning Board. Buyers of new BS-VI diesel or CNG vehicles, or electric ones, get a 5 percent interest subvention for five years, a 100 percent road-tax waiver for ten years, and no registration fee. Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have notified those tax breaks. Participating manufacturers must give at least an 8 percent discount on the ex-showroom price. Diesel and CNG buyers also get monthly fuel vouchers of ₹1,200 to ₹4,800 for five years. Electric buyers get a one-time sum of ₹64,000 to ₹2.56 lakh.

The stock of eligible vehicles is not a round guess. State tables put Delhi at 71,660 trucks and 6,843 buses, Haryana at 91,796 trucks and 14,924 buses, Uttar Pradesh at 31,793 trucks and 8,383 buses, and Rajasthan at 4,872 trucks and 1,690 buses. The four-state total is about 2.32 lakh vehicles. Haryana holds the largest pile of old commercial metal. That is why a scheme launched from Delhi will be judged in Gurugram and Faridabad as much as at ITO.

The portal’s first six weeks show the gap between signup and a new number plate. By 27 August more than 1,300 to 1,450 owners had registered, depending on the briefing. About 35 old vehicles had been scrapped and more than 50 sold. Only four new replacements had been registered in one official count. Another brief put Mahendra Singh of Alwar as the first man to take a new vehicle under the scheme. Forty-two banks and NBFCs, 3,806 branches, 15 manufacturers and 184 dealers are on the system. Loans have started. Fuel vouchers are wired through oil companies and city-gas firms.

Umashankar told reporters the effect should be visible next winter. IQAir’s 2025 World Air Quality Report put Delhi’s annual average at 99.6 micrograms per cubic metre, about twenty times the WHO guideline. Old trucks and buses are one slice of that number, not the whole of it. The scheme’s own dashboard is the test that matters in the next ninety days: 25,000 registrations by October, or a portal full of names and a road still running BS-IV exhaust.