New Delhi, March 30 (Agencies): The National Green Tribunal on Thursday ordered public sector oil companies to immediately stop using decade-old supply tankers in the National Capital Region, which includes Delhi and adjoining districts in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar ordered Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp to immediately stop such vehicles from plying and directed the authorities not to renew their registration.

”We direct that all the vehicles of these companies which are working under different contracts in Delhi-NCR and the diesel vehicles which are admittedly more than 10 years' old and are BS-I and BS-II compliant shall be withdrawn forthwith from the road. They shall not be plied at all in NCR, Delhi,” the bench said.

The NGT’s order comes a day after the Supreme Court refused to relax the ban on sale and registration of new vehicles not compliant with the BS-IV emission norms that comes into effect from April 1, leaving the industry potentially stuck with 8.24 lakh vehicles, including 96,000 commercial vehicles.

The NGT gave the oil companies some space on tankers compliant with BS-III emission norms, which came into force in the NCR in 2005 and nationwide in 2010.

The NGT said managing directors of these companies and representatives of their contractors should meet to devise a plan to phase out BS-III vehicles.

“The Managing Directors of all these companies shall be personally liable for compliance with this order,” it said.

Bharat Petroleum’s contractors operate 93 diesel vehicles, all BS-III compliant.

Hindustan Petroleum’s contractors operate 99 diesel vehicles, of which 30 are BS-II compliant and 69 are BS-III compliant.

Indian Oil’s contractors operate 640 diesel vehicles out of which two vehicles are BS-I compliant, 622 vehicles are BS-II compliant and 16 vehicles are BS-III compliant.

The NGT was hearing a batch of petitions filed by various contractors seeking registration of new BS-IV compliant diesel vehicles purchased for transport of petrol from company depots to identified petrol pumps in Delhi-NCR.

The Bharat Stage norms, first started in 2000, have set progressively stricter emission levels depending on the fuel used.