The Draft Reciprocal Common Transport Agreement notified by the governments of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan is soon going to allow seamless movement of passengers and goods traffic in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The agreement will come as a boon for Delhi as it will reduce the load on the city's infrastructure. Entire NCR region will be treated as one allowing unhindered movement of people and goods across across 33,578 square km, as against National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, which is limited to a small area of 1,483 square km. However, the efficacy of certain clauses of the draft — like limiting the age of vehicles allowed to ply in NCR to 10- years, and making compliance to Euro III emission standards mandatory for all goods vehicles — are being questioned by experts.

Delhi government has already brought out the notification on July 25 and set a one-month time to invite objections from the public. After this, the objections will be examined and necessary changes made if needed. Else, the draft prepared by the government will be formalised and implemented with immediate effect. A similar process will be followed for the supporting draft that was brought out by the Union government on July 18, which will be made permanent after 60 days.

An item (no 6 in the General category) pertains to the age of vehicles, which states that the "age of vehicle shall be limited to 10-years or till any further directions are issued in this regard". Experts have questioned this on grounds that the government has no scientific basis to suggest the 10-year time frame.

"Fixing an age limit for vehicles can lead to serious shortage of commercial vehicles in the city, as a majority of the small and large trucks and trailers doing short trips in Delhi are more than 10-years old. The newer vehicles are normally deployed on longer, national trips. If the government puts them off the road, the cost of transportation of essential goods as well as construction material could go up by 10-40 per cent," said SP Singh of Indian Federation of Transportation Research and Training (IFTRT).

Furthermore, the new law requires all the goods and transport vehicles in NCR to be Bharat Stage III compliant. Industry experts feel that the number of such vehicles are very few, and implementation of the law could lead to a sudden demand for such vehicles, which the manufacturers may not be able to meet.

The government has sought to fix the load which commercial goods vehicles are allowed to carry and over which, anything is overloading.