Pune: The Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) has said that the vehicle (auto) scapping policy will benefit Maharashtra and in particular Pune region the most.
“Most of the auto industries are located in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ranjangaon and Chakan area. These industries will definitely benefit from the auto scrappage policy,” said Prashant Girbane, Director General of MCCIA.
Maharashtra accounts for approximately 35.1 per cent of the country’s output of automobiles by value. It has leading auto industry hub of the country with market share of 21 per cent in India.
- The major automobile centres in the state include Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Mumbai and Nagpur.
- Pune is the largest auto hub of India with over 4,000 manufacturing & ancillary unitsin the Pimpri-Chinchwad region alone.
- Pune has ‘who’s who’ of Indian Automobile Industry – Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Auto and international auto majors like GM, Volkswagen, Mercedes.
- Aurangabad is major auto hub and is home to auto major like Skoda, Bajaj Auto, Goodyear tyres, Vorrac Engineering, Balkrishna Tyres, Duro Valves amongst others
MCCIA in its press release has said that “We have been demanding the auto scrapping policy for a long time. Voluntary auto scrappage policy would mean old (15 years for commercial vehicles and 20 years for private vehicles) would need to be scrapped and thereby creating demand for new vehicles which will lead to additional production that sustains and creates additional jobs in the auto sector.”
"It also helps in reducing pollution, thereby helping the environment. By some estimates about 28 million vehicles could go off the roads by 2025," the statement read.
Earlier, during the budget speech Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman had said, “We are announcing a vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old, unfit vehicles. This will help in fuel-efficient environment-friendly vehicles, reduce pollution and also fuel import bills.”
“Personal vehicles will have to undergo fitness tests in 20 years and commercial vehicles will have to do the same in 15 years at the automated fitness centres,” Sitaraman had said.