Urge Manufacturers To Establish Scrapping, Fitness Centres: Gadkari

At the 64th Edition of the Society For Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Convention, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, urged automobile manufacturers to invest in their own scrapping and fitness centres. He said that though it will mean the companies would need to invest ₹ 10,000 crore to set up a scrappage centre/fitness centre and termed it as an ‘additional business benefit’ for vehicle manufacturers. Speaking at the event, Gadkari said, “This has to be an additional business benefit for all of you. The raw material recovery is 90%, reduced steel import by 65 lakh tonnes and 35,000 jobs.”

Just to give you a perspective, currently there are 63 operational scrapping centres, 60 are under construction and there are 40 in the pipeline. Gadkari also gave out information on fitness centres where he said that there are currently 78 operational fitness stations, 179 are under construction and 83 in the pipeline.

(Also Read: Upto 3% Discount On New Car For Scrapping Old One: Nitin Gadkari)

He also said that the scrapping will help scale up sales of vehicles. “Today in the Europe and USA because of scrapping they have increased their sale by 9 to 12% it is going to beneficial to all of you. India has 3,00,00,000 end of life vehicles and by scrapping you will reduce the cost of your component by 30 to 40%. 90% of the material can be recycled and because of that your profit margin will also increase and you can reduce the cost of your final product so it is in a win win situation.”

Gadkari further said that scrapping will help increase sales in India by 18-20 per cent. We had told you just yesterday that a discount of 3% has been announced on new vehicle purchase if a vehicle is scrapped. Will there be more discounts offered by car makers? Well, the festive season has begun and car makers will certainly want all the attention right now.