Telangana: Almost all barred 2-wheelers sold

Hyderabad: Following the order from the Supreme Court banning of BS-III vehicles from April 1 across the country, automobile dealers in the state have sold 22,012 two-wheeler vehicles in the last 48 hours from the stock of 27,000.

Showrooms announced special offers and huge discounts on various models providing cash benefits from Rs 7,500 to Rs 22,500 on Thursday afternoon, and sales increased by 300 per cent on Thursday and 400 per cent on Friday.
An official from the Road Transport Authority said that an average of 3,000 two-wheelers were being sold per day across the state till March 28.

“The sales increased a day before the Supreme Court judgement (March 29). The sales recorded on March 29 was 4,305 and the department got Rs 11.62 crore as tax. On March 30, 9,817 vehicles were sold. On Friday, the number increased to 9,195  by 5 pm and 10,343 by 7 pm. We are expecting 2,000 more registrations by 10 pm,” the official said.

Joint transport commissioner (Hyderabad) J. Pandurang Naik said the IT wing of the department had upgraded the software to stop temporary registrations of BS-III vehicles after 11.59 pm of March 31. “We are advising customers not to purchase such vehicles from April 1,” he said.

The transport department had imposed a ban on BS-III four-wheelers in GHMC limits from April 1, 2010.  The state has 85 lakh vehicles of which 42 lakh are in the GHMC limits. About 10 lakh vehicles in the GHMC area are BS-IV compliant.

Automobile dealers continued their sales by deputing additional staff till 3 am on Friday. The sales resumed at 9 am and was expected to continue till 11 pm. MeeSeva opened its servers for temporary registration at 10 am on Friday and recorded 3,500 registrations in an one hour. Most of the dealers in GHMC limits cleared their stock by afternoon and a majority of showrooms displayed ‘No Stock BS-III’ boards.A dealer from Somajiguda said that most of the stock was cleared. The manufacturers would take back the remaining vehicles, he said.