Supreme Court hikes green fee on vehicles passing through Delhi: LMVs to Pay Rs 2,000, trucks Rs 4,000 from April 1

NEW DELHI: In an effort to deter heavy vehicles from using Delhi as a transit route and adding to pollution, the Supreme Court on Thursday accepted the recommendations of the Commission on Air Quality Management for a steep hike in the Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) for LMVs from Rs 1,400 to Rs 2,000 and for trucks from Rs 2,600 to Rs 4,000 with effect from Apr 1.

Additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati told a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi that CAQM is of the opinion that the proposed revision would restore the deterrence value of ECC as originally fixed in 2015 and reinstate a significant cost differential between transit through Delhi and diversion via peripheral expressways.

Bhati said that the ECC had not been revised since 2015 and added that the rates would be revised upwards by 5% from Apr 1 every year. The bench said the first revision of ECC would be from Apr 1, 2027.

The bench, while accepting the CAQM recommendations, directed all stakeholders to ensure that commercial and heavy vehicles are not permitted to transit through Delhi and diverted to eastern and western peripheral expressways.

CAQM also recommended that MCD must undertake rationalisation of its toll structure for revision of existing toll rates, address disparities in vehicle classification vis-a-vis the framework adopted by NHAI and undertake a comprehensive traffic and revenue study to assess traffic potential and route diversion patterns, particularly in light of the proposed ECC revision.

"The proposed revision, coupled with technology-enabled enforcement viz. time-bound installation and operationalisation of barrier-free Multi-Lane Free Flow (l\/LFF) system, integrated with RFID and Automatic Number Plate Recognition by MCD, and periodic escalation mechanism, is intended to discourage entry of diesel commercial goods vehicles into Delhi, divert such non-destined freight traffic away from Delhi and consequently, result in reducing the pollution load," it said.