Government plans to to ban trucks older than 15 years to check air pollution

In a bid to curb soaring urban air pollution, the government is all set to force all commercial trucks more than 15 years old off the road from April and is reviewing how it checks vehicle emissions, said a senior transport official.

Last year, the World Health Organization said last year that India had 13 of the 20 most polluted cities on the planet, including the worst offender, New Delhi.

Fumes spewed by a multiplying fleet of commercial vehicles, many of them old and badly maintained, are one of the biggest contributors to air pollution nationally: the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) think-tank estimates their share of vehicular emissions at 60 percent.

"We are to make 15 years the end of the life for all commercial vehicles," Vijay Chhibber, the top bureaucrat in the transport ministry, told Reuters, saying the order, not previously reported, would be made public within 10 days and the ban enforced next April.

"It (air pollution) will get worse every year unless we do something."

Hauliers complained such a move would unfairly single them out, while experts said the ban was only a part of the solution.

"Taxes on cars and parking charges should be raised to curtail usage, and public transport should be expanded," said Vivek Chattopadhyay, a pollution expert at the CSE. "Emissions are not just related to age."

Smog has blanketed the New Delhi this week as a global climate summit began in Paris, a reminder of how hard it will be for India to achieve economic growth and prosperity without pollution getting worse.