More than 20,000 vehicles in different state government departments have reached the 15-year-old mark, making it mandatory for them to be phased out, a preliminary survey by the transport department has revealed.

Trinamool MLA from Canning East, Saokat Molla’s pilot car, which fatally hit a 49-year-old man on Tuesday, is one among 700 such vehicles with the police, sources in the transport department said.

In July 2022, the National Green Tribunal had directed the state government to scrap vehicles older than 15 years in Calcutta and Howrah to reduce air pollution.

Some of the departments with a large fleet of 15-year-old vehicles include health, police, urban development and panchayat and rural affairs, the survey has revealed.

“We have instructed the departments to ensure that vehicles on state government duty must have a valid fitness certificate to be able to ply on the roads. Parallely, we have appealed to Calcutta High Court for a nuanced approach on the phasing out of 15-year-old vehicles after considering their condition,” Snehasis Chakraborty, transport minister, told Metro.

“Not all 15-year-old vehicles are in a poor state and need to be scrapped. We have appealed to the court for an extension of the deadline on the grounds of mandatory biannual fitness tests for vehicles older than 15 years. The thrust should be on a vehicle’s condition,” he said.

“Molla’s pilot car was registered with the Public Vehicles Department, Calcutta, on August 19, 2009, a month after it was purchased, data available with the transport department revealed. Senior officials of the transport department said the vehicle’s registration certificate (RC) has been terminated.

The vehicle’s fitness certificate had expired on August 10, 2024. The pollution under control certificate, though, is valid till September 19.

“Ideally, such a vehicle should not be plying on the roads because its registration has been cancelled,” a transport department official said.