State divided into three zones for setting up vehicle scrapping units

Dividing the State into three zones, the State will set up three Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF) centres in Kerala to phase out unfit vehicles older than 15 years in the category of commercial vehicles and private vehicles older than 20 years.

The State has been divided into three zones: the South Zone, including Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, and Kottayam; the Central Zone, including Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Malappuram, and Palakkad; and the North Zone, comprising Kozhikode, Kannur, Kasaragod and Wayanad to establish the scrapping centres.

One among these centres will be a joint venture between Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and Braithwaite and Co Ltd., a Central PSU under the Railway Ministry, which will come up at Edappal Malappuram, while the other two scrapping centres will be set up in the Northern or Southern zones. The Registration Authority has been authorised to invite open tenders for the setting up of two RVSF centres in the State.

According to a government order dated October 21, for the south zone and north zone, the contract will be awarded to the bidder who agrees to the highest percentage of revenue share with the State government in an open tender. The contract will be awarded to the company or institution after verifying the experience, financial stability, etc. Though lakhs of vehicles are to be scrapped in Kerala under the provisions of the Centre’s scrapping policy in 2021, no exact database of vehicles to be scrapped is available with the Motor Vehicle Department (MVD).

A good number of vehicles that are expected to be operational as per the records of MVD might have been scrapped by private scrappers but not surrendered their documents as per rules. Similarly, there are instances of vehicles scrapped in the State that are still operational with unscrupulous agents making use of the documents of the scrapped vehicles. As part of encouraging people to scrap their unfit vehicles legally, the State has recently announced a tax concession for vehicle owners to purchase new vehicles against a “Certificate of Deposit” issued by a registered vehicle scrapping facility. The State has granted a tax concession at the rate of 15% in the case of Non Transport Vehicles (NTV) and 10% for transport vehicles (TV).  

Published - October 27, 2024 07:34 pm IST