On July 17 last year, the department of environment had issued a notification banning 15-year-old public transport vehicles like buses, mini-buses and taxis with effect from April 1, 2009. Following the notification, a division bench headed by the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, SS Nijjar, had directed on July 18, 2008 that the notification be treated as a high court order.

Today, the counsels of various bus owners associations moved a plea seeking an extension of the time limit for phasing out 15-year-old vehicles from April 1, 2009.

Roy then pleaded that the state government had already announced a rehabilitation package after consulting the various associations of bus and minibus owners. “The state government had prepared the scheme for the benefit of the bus owners. The government will fork out Rs 75,000 to the owner of the vehicle to be phased out. The major amount needed to purchase a new vehicle would be financed by the banks. The owner would have to pay only a small amount,” Roy said. “No bus owner has applied for replacing his old vehicle under this rehabilitation scheme. But the taxi owners have shown interest in it.”

The division bench of Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose fixed March 17 as the date for the next hearing.

In a related development, the transport department had issued a notification on May 24, 2005 banning 15-year-old vehicles with effect from January 1, 2006. The notification had said that only public vehicles adhering to the Bharat Stage III auto-emission norms would be allowed to ply in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area.