Rajasthan Cabinet approves vehicle scrapping policy to phase out polluting vehicles

The Rajasthan Cabinet on Tuesday approved several important decisions on environmental protection, sustainable development, governance, industry, education and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

The Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma approved the Rajasthan Vehicle Scrapping Policy-2025 (RVSP) to phase out unfit and polluting vehicles in a scientific, safe and environment-friendly manner.

Deputy Chief Minister Prem Chand Bairwa and Public Health Engineering Minister Kanhaiya Lal, who were present in meeting, said that RVSP will be implemented with the aim of phasing out unfit and polluting vehicles from the road and destroying them in accordance with scientific, safe and environmental standards.

Bairwa said that government vehicles older than 15 years, vehicles without fitness/registration, vehicles that have been in accidents or damaged, scrap vehicles purchased at auction, unusable vehicles, or vehicles voluntarily donated to RVSF can be scrapped under this policy. The vehicle owner will receive a Certificate of Deposit (COD) and a Certificate of Vehicle Scrapping (CVS) from an authorised scrap centre, which can be digitally uploaded to the Vahan portal. Based on the COD, a motor vehicle tax rebate of up to 50 per cent (up to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh) will be available on the purchase of a new vehicle.

Under this policy, the establishment of RVSFs will be promoted in the state, through which vehicle scrapping will be completely transparent, digital and traceable. All scrapping processes will be integrated with the Vahan portal, thereby eliminating the possibility of unauthorized use of scrappable vehicles.

The Artificial Intelligence – Machine Learning (AI ML) Policy was also approved in the cabinet meeting. Bairwa said that the policy aims to make public service delivery more rapid, transparent, and citizen-centric, enhance administrative efficiency, and encourage innovation-driven economic growth through the responsible, ethical, and secure use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

He said that this policy emphasises making AI systems transparent, accountable, fair, and privacy-protected, as well as reducing bias in AI systems, protecting data, and ensuring clarity in decision-making.

The nearly Rs 80,000 crore refinery and petrochemical complex project in Barmer’s Pachpadra will likely be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January, if there are no major hiccups, cabinet minister Jogaram Patel said Tuesday.

Patel made the announcement after the cabinet meeting.

Patel said that under the incumbent government, work on the establishment of the 9 million metric tonne annual capacity refinery and petrochemical complex project has accelerated and is nearing completion. An MoU for the refinery project was signed between the state government and HPCL on April 18, 2017. The estimated initial cost of the refinery was Rs 43,129 crore, and the work was to be completed by October 31, 2022.

However, Patel said that during the previous state government’s tenure, the project’s cost had increased to Rs 72,937 crore as of June 2, 2023. HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Ltd. (HRRL) submitted a proposal for a second revision of the refinery’s cost price to the state government on July 24, 2025, and the state government had this proposal evaluated by MECON Ltd., a government of India undertaking, whose report was examined by a committee constituted by the state government. Patel said that in this regard, the cabinet has approved HRRL’s second revised cost price proposal, now increased by Rs 6,522 crore to Rs 79,459 crore, with the debt-equity ratio remaining at 2:1.

The state government’s equity share in the project has been set at Rs 6,886 crore, corresponding to a 26 percent share. Due to the increased cost, the state government will contribute Rs 565.24 crore as additional equity capital, Patel said.

Meanwhile, former CM Ashok Gehlot said that he tried to bring the refinery to Rajasthan and it was only after the intervention of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi that Rajasthan was able to secure the refinery, “and in 2013, Mrs Sonia Gandhi and the then Petroleum Minister MrVeerappa Moily attended the foundation stone laying ceremony of the refinery in Pachpadra.”

“I am saddened that after the change of Congress government in 2013, the BJP government stalled the refinery work for five years, which could have possibly increased the cost of this Rs 37,000 crore project to nearly Rs 1 lakh crore. After the Congress government came to power, despite adverse circumstances like Covid between 2018 and 2023, the work there progressed rapidly once again, and in our five years, approximately 85 per cent of the work was completed,” Gehlot said.

“In the review meeting in Pachpadra in May 2023, HPCL had promised that commercial production would start by December 2024, but that did not happen after the BJP government came to power. In Budget 2025, a promise was made to operationalize the refinery by August, but that deadline has also passed. Now, information is coming in that the refinery work is almost complete. Now, the government should arrange for the inauguration of this project as soon as possible so that production can begin,” he said.