Government bans all BSIII two-wheelers from getting registered in Delhi

Notice anything strange about the Royal Enfield Himalayan launch? No? In case you didn’t notice Royal Enfield did not announce the Delhi prices of its newest motorcycle. The reason cited at the launch a phased approach and will be launching the motorcycle in a staggered manner. But the truth could be a bit different. Reportedly, the Himalayan cannot be registered in Delhi-NCR because it is not BSIV compliant. And without the bike being compliant to the upcoming emission norms which go into effect from April 1st 2016, the Delhi transport department has not given the approval to register new BSIII compliant two-wheelers. Royal Enfield isn’t the only one caught in this rather bizarre storm. Bajaj Auto launched its V15 last month, which is running a 150cc DTS-i Discover engine and also happens to be BSIII compliant only. Suzuki Motorcycle India is in the same boat with its new Access 125 launched just yesterday. 

The Government had all manufacturers to make their new products BSIV compliant by April this year while the deadline for existing models was April 1, 2017. The directive came in a mere two months ago, and one needs to understand that manufacturers spend years developing a product. The Himalayan for instance was under development for over two years before being deemed road ready. And getting manufacturers to comply with emission norms on such a short notice is next to impossible as the process could take anywhere between 4 to 12 months. 

The Delhi government had exempted all two-wheelers from its odd-even plan in January but has now stopped allowing two-wheelers to be registered without an official order. It is this lack of clarity that has manufacturers worried. A ban on BSIII compliant two wheelers affects sales directly and in effect the hope to recover the massive amounts of money spent in the development of a new product. In addition, once the new norms come into effect it will be nearly impossible to register BSIII bikes in Delhi. This is not to say that motorcycles should be exempted from the norms as the limit for CO2 emissions from two wheelers is five times that from cars. Manufacturers should be given a fair amount of time to make changes to their products to ensure they comply with the BS IV norms. 

Meanwhile the industry is seeking approval for registration of BSIII two wheelers till BS IV norms come into effect. In addition buyers can easily register them in Haryana as there is no law which states that vehicles registered outside Delhi cannot ply on the capital’s roads, since the matter pertains only to registration. With over three lakh two wheelers sold in the capital last year it is extremely difficult to monitor the two-wheelers in Delhi, which is another problem on its own as ours is a manual system with no technological aids for the authorities.