The Delhi government has said it will deregister all diesel vehicles that have completed 10 years as of January 1.

In an order issued on Tuesday, the Delhi transport department also said it will not issue no objection certificates to prevent these diesel vehicles from being registered again in other places.

The decision came on the directions of the National Green Tribunal, which in 2016 had issued guidelines on restrictions for registering diesel vehicles more than 10 years old and the ones that run on petrol and are over 15 years old.

In its order, the National Green Tribunal had said that all diesel vehicles over 10 years old should be deregistered. It had also said that deregistration of over 15-year-old vehicles should be conducted without delay.

The transport department on Tuesday said that it had complied with the tribunal’s orders and deregistered several vehicles. However, it said that a new set of vehicles in the meantime had become older than 10 years.

The owners of these decade-old vehicles would have the option to convert them to electric ones if they want to use them in Delhi. However, the retrofitting the vehicles with electronic kits will need to be done at places authorised by the transport department, the order said.

“In all other cases, the only recourse would be to scrap the vehicles which are more than 10 years old [diesel] and 15 years old [petrol],” the order said.

The transport department also said that a no objection certificate for diesel vehicles that are less than 10 years old and petrol ones up to 15 years could be issued for anywhere in the country except places identified as “restricted areas” by the National Green Tribunal.