Diesel Ban In Mumbai How Nitin Gadkari’s Policies And Mumbai High Court’s Hint Are Hurting Diesel Vehicle Owners

Mumbai High Court

Even if all such actions are presented in terms of addressing the environmental issue, it will negatively affect millions of vehicle owners, small businesses, and transport operators who heavily rely on the diesel sector for their living. This kind of policy change seems to be more of a form of deception from the government and an attempt to dump consumers without viable solutions.

Diesel was for many years endorsed by the government as being the most economical and effective fuel. Loyal customers acquired automotive for diesel for the long term on the self-orchestrated pledged policies. Now, this government has switched to this side without the owners of diesel vehicles ever seeing it coming and now they feel trapped.

There is no direct or staged-down plan to guide owners of diesel vehicles towards a greener fleet. The change process appears arbitrary and ill-thought-out.

The trade value of diesel cars is declining at a very high rate. Sellers want to disown their cars thinking they will shortly be outdated in the market.

This got worse when the Mumbai High Court somewhat suggested that the Indian government should impose even tighter regulation on the operations of diesel-engined vehicles because air pollution is getting out of hand in the mega-city. There is no decision yet but the observations made by the Court have raised concerns of a possible ban or very stringent restrictions soon.

High court cribbing over the emission of diesel vehicles while other major sources in Mumbai are dust from construction sites, various industries, and unhygienic means of disposing of wastes. These judicial clues, added to the actions of the governmental policies that are increasingly unfriendly to imports, are leading to consumer insecurity.

The Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari has been very bullish on the adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) preferring them over diesel cars. There is no doubt EVs are environmentally friendly but the government's drive is unrealistic and impractical at the least of possibilities for Mumbai.

The existing power grid in the city has stability issues with meeting normal demand. Heating or power outages could perhaps occur if there was an abrupt surge in the power demand by those charging their EVs.

Conclusion: Policy Failing Its People

Mumbai’s proposed diesel ban has been mooted by Nitin Gadkari and suggested, recently, by the Mumbai High Court on sustainable development, but it is little more than passing the buck on to the general public.

What is lacking here is a balanced approach or a phased approach towards implementation but what we see the government rolling out are policies that tend to give bad news to the working class while at the same time they are not serious with ways of containing pollution.

The government, concerned with environmental issues has to encourage include more people in the planning process, implement the environmental changes in order, and ensure that they put down substantive infrastructures and not just ruthless decisions that impose risky situations on millions of people for the mere reason of electoral gains.

Let me know what you think!