The Government has decided to ban vehicles more than 20 years older from plying in the country from march 1, 2017 .Old vehicles are one of the major factors causing road accidents and air pollution. According to Chandraman shrestha, Director of Department of Transport, " All black plate old vehicles including taxi, bus, truck, mini truck will not allowed to play on the road."

The study showed that vehicles in operation for over 20 years are at greater risk of road accident. Studies have it that old vehicle are also big polluters.

As they are fuel-inefficient, a huge amount of expenses on fuels can be saved if replaced with new ones. Likewise, old vehicles are also prone to technical glitch, such as break failures among others. According to the traffic police, old vehicles are major because for many major accidents occurred in the Kathmandu valley and the outside. Old vehicles plying in the roads carrying passengers more than their capacity and creating air pollution is new scene of Kathmandu valley. "The Main cause of the accidents is old vehicles. They don't have proper maintaining system of brake and other parts as well. We have found many of the old vehicle's brake steering doesn't work." Prakash Aryal, DIG chief, Traffic police Kathmandu said ,

With just three months remaining for the deadline, concerned authorities are yet to reach an understanding over the terms and condition. For over a decade the Department of Transport Management (DOTM), has been attempting to remove old vehicles from the streets. However, such attempts have failed to bear fruits due to objection from transport entrepreneurs, who claim that many transport entrepreneurs would go into losses. Traffice police and the officials of the department of transport will seize all the old vehicles if they seen in the road.

President of Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE) , Saroj Sitaula said the decision to scrap old vehicles will be difficult to implement unless the government gives in to their demand. "Though the deadline is nearing, the government has not taken any initiative to discuss our demands."


Bus hits a motorcycle last week in kathmandu

"The government cannot just kill our investments. We are willing to cooperate with them if they are willing to provide compensation on vehicles that are ineligible to operate," Sitaula said.

Tokraj Pandey, spokesperson for the DoTM, said government will implement the decision on the given dead line. He claim that transport entrepreneurs have not yet registered their objection with the department, He said if successfully implemented it will make significant contribution in traffic management, and reducing traffic-related accidents along with easing public transportation .

According to the department estimates the number of such vehicles in the Kathmandu Valley to be around 2,000. Thousands more vehicles are operating outside the valley. The vehicles having green registration number plates and plying for over 20 years will be removed from the country's streets within three months.

Tree reason to remove

1. Road accidents – According to traffic police department, Old vehicles is main cause of traffic accidents.

2. Pollution control – Kathmandu is a most polluted city in South Asia. old vehicle is main cause of pollution as they are fuel-inefficient.

3. Traffic management – Traffic police think they will minimize 50 percent traffic jam after remove 20 years old vehicles.