Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh Transport Department has finally decided to stop registration of the Bharat Stage-4 (BS-4) enabled vehicle from 1 April 2020 as per provisions of Motor Vehicle Act, related rules and the decision of Supreme Court.

Transport Department spokesperson said that if anyone has brought BS-4 vehicles and have not registered due to one or the other reason should be registered immediately. And this process should be ensured up to 25th March 2020 for vehicles being sold in the month of March 2020.

To keep carbon emission in check, the Government had introduced the Bharat Stage Emission Standards (BSES) in the year 2000. Based on European (EURO) emission standards, the Bharat Stage (BS) emission norms were first brought into effect in 2000 under the head “India 2000”. This was followed by BS2 in 2001 and BS3 in 2005.

However, the emission norms were made more stringent only with the enforcement of Bharat Stage IV (BS4). Thereafter, the Government of India skipped the implementation of BS5 in 2016 and decided to introduce Bharat Stage VI (BS6) in 2020 instead.

In the light of ever-rising air pollution in India, Bharat Stage VI (BS6) will help in boosting the country’s battle against air pollution. With BS6 norms, India’s emission norms will now be equivalent to that of the USA and Europe.