Thrissur: If the vehicle scrappage policy which demands scrapping of vehicles that are over 20 years old comes into force, it will affect about 35 lakh vehicles in Kerala. According to the statistics of the Motor Vehicle Department, there are over 35 lakh vehicles that comes under the law including 70 percent two wheelers.
If the law is implemented, Kerala will be the largest vehicle market in the country. The budget speech of the Finance Minister has given new energy to the motor vehicle industry. Currently, there are about 1,41,84,184 vehicles in the state. The number of vehicles per 1,000 population for Kerala is 425. Kerala is the state that has highest vehicle density in the country too.
The annual growth rate of vehicles in the state is 10.7 percent and 65 percent of the total vehicles are two wheelers. So, the scrappage policy will be affecting the 2-wheeler sector mostly. Four wheelers including cars comes in the second spot with 22 percent. Auto rickshaw and goods vehicles are 5 percent and buses only one percent.
The number of road accidents and deaths are not decreasing in Kerala as expected. So, scrappage policy is expected to bring a major change. The accidents due to damage of vehicles will decrease after old vehicles are removed from the road. Also, the new vehicles have better safety features and this will help reduce accident deaths.
However, the vintage vehicle lovers are concerned over the new policy. There are about 2.25 lakh vintage vehicles in Kerala as per reports. Vintage vehicles are maintained as new even after 20 years by performing all types of tests.
If scrappage policy is implemented strictly in India as in foreign countries, vintage vehicles can only be kept as display items. The owners will need to take special license also. The scrappage policy that is presented in India in April this year will come into force by April 2022, it is learnt.
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