Electric vehicle (EV) charging station
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO
In a major push towards clean mobility, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) announced on Wednesday that from January 1 next year, no new diesel or petrol vehicles can be added to the fleets of e-commerce companies and vehicle aggregators operating in the Delhi-NCR region.
This mandate applies across the spectrum of four-wheelers, three-wheelers, and two-wheelers. From the beginning of 2026, only electric or compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles will be allowed to be newly inducted into commercial delivery and mobility fleets.
So far, the directive is limited to Delhi-NCR. However, the CAQM has urged the governments of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan to “formulate comprehensive policies encompassing motor vehicle aggregators, delivery service providers and e-commerce entities for the entire NCR, prioritising Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad” – cities that depend heavily on both intra-city and inter-city vehicular movement.
The commission emphasised that implementing the norms would help address the “significantly high contribution from the transport sector to the overall air pollution in the entire NCR, consistently throughout the year and more adversely during the winter season”.
The rapid transition to cleaner and more efficient mobility solutions is “imperative”, the CAQM noted, adding that zero-emission vehicles such as Battery Electric Vehicles should be prioritised. “There is a need for an urgent transition to cleaner modes of mobility,” said the CAQM notice.
Published – June 05, 2025 01:20 am IST