NEPAL: Department of Transport is planning to phase out 20 years vehicles from Kathmandu Valley within the next two years.

The Department has submitted a proposal regarding this matter to the Ministry of Labor and transport. According to the department, inspection of the old vehicles for their emission will commence from next week and vehicles that fail to meet the standards will be phased out.

The Department estimates that there are 12,000 vehicles that are older than 20 years in Kathmandu. Out of these, about 10,000 are public vehicles and 2,000 are government vehicles.

The Department says that it will not give any compensation to vehicles owners, but the owners will be allowed to operate the vehicles outside the valley and they will be allowed to retain their route permits and import new vehicles for these routes. Entrepreneurs are however demanding incentives such as exemption on custom duties for new vehicles.

Two years ago on 29 Falgun 2059, the Supreme Court had instructed the government to phase out vehicles that are more than 20 years old within two years.