The Supreme Court decision on Wednesday to ban registration of all diesel-run SUVs and luxury cars with engine capacity of 2,000 cc in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) till 31 March, 2016, has been described by auto industry body Siam as "most unfortunate".
"The Supreme Court order banning private diesel passenger vehicles and SUVs of 2000-cc engine capacity and above is most unfortunate. While this would certainly hurt some segments of the automotive industry, it will not bring about any perceptible improvement in the air quality of Delhi," the Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (Siam) said in a press statement on Wednesday.
In its view, the order has been passed disregarding the findings of recent study on factors contributing to pollution in the national capital.
"This order has been passed after totally ignoring the findings of the most summary of the recent study on source apportionment for NCT of Delhi shared with the court, which says the vehicles are responsible for only 20% of the pollution in Delhi, out of which only 14-15% is attributable to passenger cars. This makes the overall pollution load of passenger cars a miniscule number of just 3%," it said.
The body said the industry is being singled out because it is a "soft target".
"Single-minded approach to address only the auto industry which is a soft target has resulted in high pollution continuing in Delhi, despite of auto industry moving rapidly to BS IV norms within a short period of 10 years — a feat not performed by any other country till date," said Siam.
It also made a reference to the pattern in pollution levels coinciding with the change in temperature.
"Historical data shows pollution levels in Delhi always rise from September to December and always start falling from January till August onward, whether the number of vehicles increases or not. Therefore, taking any decision to ban a certain segment of vehicles based on rising pollution from September to December would not yield the desired result," it said.
