Government Standardises The Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC)

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari has informed the house that the Ministry of road transport and highways, has standardized the Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC) form to a common format to be issued across the country under Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989.

This Ministry has notified G.S.R. 527(E) dated 06-06-2018 regarding the linkage of PUC data with the VAHAN database.

As per Rule 115(7) of the CMVR, 1989 “After the expiry of a period of one year from the date on which the motor vehicle was first registered, every such vehicle shall carry a valid “Pollution under Control” certificate issued by an agency authorised for this purpose by the State Government.”

The validity of the certificate shall be for six months and the certificate shall always be carried in the vehicle and produced on demand by the officers referred to in sub-rule (1) of rule 116. 

The validity of the certificate shall be twelve months for the vehicles manufactured as per BS-IV or BS-VI norms.

Further, MORTH has also issued an advisory to State Governments for the proper functioning of PUC centres, as under:

1. The State Transport Departments all over the country will mandate a PUC centre at every fuel station in their State.
2. The Calibration of PUC machines should be done at regular periodicity by third party agencies duly authorised by the Transport Department of the State. Further, the Transport Departments are also advised to carry random checks of the PUC centres and also to carry enforcement drive for PUC compliance by Motor Vehicle Owners.
3. Mandate pre-payment of the PUC fee before the tests are conducted.
4. Introduce well-equipped mobile test centres and a programme to check visibly polluting vehicles.
5. Enforce stringent penalties for PUC centres for non-compliance and malpractices and cancel the authorization of non-compliant PUC centres.

Implementation of the provisions of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 comes under the purview of respective Governments of States and Union Territories.