Among all state government departments, the health and police departments have the highest number of vehicles that are 15 years or older and, according to law, should be scrapped.
Transport department officials said they had been told by their staff that the old vehicles are no longer in use.
The government has yet to arrive at a proper figure of the number of old vehicles lying stationary in garages.
A preliminary assessment has suggested that the health, police, urban development and panchayat and rural affairs departments have a large number of old vehicles.
In July 2022, the National Green Tribunal had directed the state government to scrap vehicles older than 15 years in Kolkata and Howrah to reduce air pollution.
“Our immediate focus is on vehicles that are older than 15 years and are still in possession of various state government departments. We have received data from some and have sent reminders to the others to furnish details of these vehicles,” an official in the transport department said.
“Such government vehicles total around 20,000. Since several vehicles have multiple registrations, with various regional transport offices, we have sought clear data from the departments concerned about the number of vehicles with them that are older than 15 years.”
In 2023, the state government had granted licence to a company to set up Bengal’s first vehicle scrapyard in Howrah’s Uluberia. The scrapyard has been set up primarily for private vehicles that are older than 15 years.
Government vehicles that are past their use-by date should be auctioned as scrap, an official said.
“We have engaged the Metal Scrap Trade Corporation Limited, a central public sector undertaking under the Union ministry of steel, to auction transport department vehicles that are 15 years or older," the official said.
“The engines of those vehicles will be destroyed so that they are no longer in use. A committee, made up of officials from transport, finance and other departments, has been set up to oversee the process. We want to see how the first lot of auctioning goes off.”
The scrapping of privately owned commercial vehicles will be carried out in three phases. In the first, commercial vehicles registered between January 1, 1970, and December 31, 1999, will be scrapped.
The second phase will involve vehicles registered between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2004. The third phase will target vehicles registered between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2007.
“The owners of close to 90,000 commercial vehicles, which fulfil the criteria set for the first two phases, have been served notices for scrapping," a transport official said.