New Delhi: In a landmark move to combat rising air pollution levels, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has issued a sweeping directive that will bar the addition of new petrol and diesel-powered vehicles to the commercial fleets of cab aggregators, delivery services, and e-commerce platforms in the Delhi-NCR region starting January 1, 2026.
The new mandate, which applies to light commercial vehicles, goods carriers, and two-wheelers used for last-mile delivery, allows only electric and CNG vehicles to be added to these fleets going forward. This is part of a broader push to reduce transport-sector emissions, which CAQM identified as a major contributor to the region’s deteriorating air quality.
According to the Commission, commercial vehicles—unlike privately-owned vehicles—operate for longer durations and are often poorly maintained, resulting in significantly higher pollutant emissions. The directive is intended to accelerate the shift toward zero-emission transport, particularly in a region that consistently records some of the worst air pollution levels in the world.
To support this transition, the Delhi government had earlier introduced the Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Provider Scheme in 2023. This scheme regulates companies operating with more than 25 vehicles, including app-based aggregators, and mandates that their fleets be registered on a dedicated monitoring portal. The portal is designed to track vehicle compliance and monitor emission reductions across operators.
The CAQM has also called upon neighbouring states—Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan—to introduce similar zero-emission mandates, especially in vehicle-heavy urban centres such as Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Faridabad. The Commission stressed the importance of region-wide uniformity in air quality regulation, particularly given the interconnected nature of transport movement across Delhi-NCR.
In a parallel development to boost domestic EV production, the Government of India has released detailed guidelines under its Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars. The scheme, first announced in March last year, now enables carmakers to import up to 8,000 electric four-wheelers per year at a drastically reduced import duty of 15 percent—down from the previous 70–100 percent—provided they commit to investing ₹4,150 crore in establishing local manufacturing plants.
