Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 8

The Delhi transport department will take stringent action against the polluting commercial vehicles coming from the NCR region and plying in the Capital.

Can India check the car

NEW DELHI: Even as the auto industry is struggling to meet its sales target, India

With a price tag of about Rs 1 lakh, the Nano will cost about half as much as the cheapest car currently on the market. But, some environmentalists are dreading the prospect of hundreds of thousands of low-cost cars hitting polluted and over-crowded roads around the world in the next few years.

Metal costs, largely responsible for vehicle price hikes, will soon cease to pinch the automobile manufacturers' margins as they become increasingly aware of the benefits of using engineering plastic instead of metals in vehicles. Home-grown automotive players like Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda, TVS Motors and Maruti Suzuki are augmenting the use of plastics in engine components in an ambitious effort to reduce dependence on key metals like steel and aluminium, all of which have witnessed stupendous rise of 35-50 per cent in the past 5 months.

Working for a larger car market share and stepping up sourcing of auto parts from India, Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat unfolded its plans to source auto parts worth at least 250 million euro (about Rs. 1,595 crore) from the country by 2010 besides launching the CNG variant of its bread and butter model Palio and rolling out some more cars in the coming 12 months. At present, it is sourcing parts worth 30 million euro from India.

The Delhi Cabinet on Thursday approved the proposal to encourage the use of battery-operated vehicles in the city by reducing the rates of value-added tax (VAT) on them. The Cabinet also approve the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage for declaration of Delhi as a world heritage city. Speaking to the reporters, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit stated that her government will allow the citizens to have access to a clean-fuelled vehicle to ensure improvement in the air quality of the city.