MoRTH is the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. It is the Union ministry of the Government of India responsible for national highways, road transport policy, and the rules that govern every registered vehicle in the country.
For a vehicle owner, MoRTH is the source of the rules your RTO applies. It writes the Motor Vehicles Rules, authorises testing and scrapping facilities, and runs the VAHAN database your registration sits in. Any change to registration or scrappage starts with a MoRTH notification.
MoRTH sets policy and rules for road transport, and it builds and maintains the national highway network. Those are two separate jobs under one ministry. The first reaches every vehicle owner through registration and licensing rules, and the second reaches road users through the highways themselves.
The ministry was separated from the shipping portfolio in 2009 and has operated under its present name since. It is headed by a Cabinet Minister. It is a Union ministry in its own right rather than a department sitting inside another one.
Its delivery arms do the physical and digital work. The National Highways Authority of India builds and maintains highways, alongside the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation in border and hill regions. The National Informatics Centre runs the systems the ministry depends on, including VAHAN for vehicle records and Sarathi for driving licences.
MoRTH's responsibilities fall into five areas: motor vehicle legislation, vehicle standards, road safety, highway development, and the digital systems holding the country's vehicle and licence records. Each area produces central rules, and state transport departments then apply those rules through their RTOs on the ground.
Motor vehicle legislation: It administers the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 and notifies amendments to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989.
Vehicle safety and emission standards: It sets the Automotive Industry Standards that vehicles sold in India have to meet.
Road safety policy: It frames national road safety measures and the penalty structure under the Motor Vehicles Act.
National highways: It plans, funds, and oversees the national highway network through its delivery agencies.
Vehicle and licence records: It owns the VAHAN and Sarathi systems that hold registration and licence data nationally.
Standards reach vehicles through a committee route rather than by direct order. The Central Motor Vehicles Rules Technical Standing Committee frames the Automotive Industry Standards, with agencies such as ARAI acting as testing bodies. That is the path by which AIS-129 came to govern depollution and dismantling at scrapping facilities.
MoRTH governs a stack of statutes and subordinate rules rather than a single law. The Motor Vehicles Act sets the framework, and the rules made under it carry the operating detail that RTOs, testing stations, and scrapping facilities work to every day.
Instrument | What it covers |
Motor Vehicles Act 1988 | Registration, licensing, permits, offences, and penalties across India. |
Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989 | Registration validity, fitness, fees, and the registration fee waiver under Rule 81. |
Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019 | The revised penalty structure, including driving without a valid PUC certificate. |
Registration and Functions of Vehicle Scrapping Facility Rules 2021 | Authorisation and operation of Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities. |
Motor Vehicles Amendment Rules 2022 | Certificate of Deposit validity of two years and the transfer certificate in Form 2D. |
National Highways Act 1956 | Acquisition, development, and management of national highways. |
Notifications are published in the Gazette of India and carried on the ministry's website and the Parivahan portal. That matters when a rule changes mid-year, which happens more often than owners expect. Theend-of-life vehicle rules are one recent example.
MoRTH built and authorises the machinery that vehicle scrappage runs on. That means the Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities that scrap vehicles, the Automated Testing Stations that decide fitness, and the VSCRAP portal that handles the application. The ministry itself scraps nothing and tests nothing.
Authorisation is the operative word. A facility cannot deregister a vehicle unless MoRTH's rules recognise it. That is why an unauthorised scrap dealer can take your vehicle away but cannot close your registration.
The ministry also sets the manufacturer window that applies to the certificate, at one year for passenger vehicles and two years for commercial vehicles. That window closes before the certificate's two-year validity does. The two dates therefore need watching separately.
The record chain is the other half. Every scrapping event is reported into VAHAN, which is what makes deregistration final and the certificate verifiable. Thecar scrapping policy India describes how that chain works for an ordinary private car.
MoRTH's rules set when a vehicle reaches end of life, who may scrap it, and what the owner receives. They do not make scrapping compulsory for private vehicles. What they do is close every route other than an authorised facility once the owner decides.
Age thresholds: 15 years for transport vehicles and 20 years for personal vehicles under the Vehicle Scrappage Policy 2021.
Registration validity: A private vehicle's registration certificate runs 15 years and is renewable in five-year blocks after a fitness test.
Fitness testing: Renewal beyond the initial period depends on passing a test at an Automated Testing Station.
Authorised scrapping only: Deregistration on VAHAN can be recorded only by a Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility.
Certificate of Deposit: The facility issues one to the owner, valid for two years and tradeable through a Form 2D transfer certificate.
The same rules apply across vehicle categories. Owners whoscrap a two-wheeler meet the same thresholds and the same authorisation requirement as a car owner. Only the weight and the payment differ.
MoRTH is the author of the Vehicle Scrappage Policy 2021 itself. The policy is the ministry's instrument for taking older vehicles off the road voluntarily. It works by making scrapping worth more to an owner than holding a vehicle whose registration can no longer be renewed.
The incentive package is what makes the policy work. MoRTH set a motor vehicle tax concession ceiling of 25 percent for non-transport vehicles and 15 percent for transport vehicles. Each state then fixes its own rate within that ceiling, and Maharashtra announced 30 percent for BS3 and older vehicles in its 2026-27 budget.
Alongside that sit a registration fee waiver under Rule 81 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989, a manufacturer discount, and announced relief on pending liabilities. All three are claimed against a new vehicle registration. For an owner not replacing the vehicle, that condition is why the certificate was made tradeable, and theCertificate of Deposit rules set out how.
MoRTH's contribution here is regulatory rather than operational. It sets the emission standard vehicles have to meet, the penalties for unsafe driving, the testing regime that decides roadworthiness, and the scrappage framework that moves older vehicles out of the fleet. States and their RTOs carry out the enforcement.
Emission standards: India moved to BS-VI norms in 2020, notified through the Central Motor Vehicles Rules.
Mechanised fitness testing: Automated Testing Stations replace visual inspection, so a fitness result does not depend on the inspector.
Road safety penalties: The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019 raised penalties for offences including driving without a valid PUC certificate.
Fleet renewal through scrappage: The Vehicle Scrappage Policy 2021 gives owners a financial reason to replace vehicles built to older norms.
Recorded dismantling: AIS-129 sets how depollution and dismantling are carried out at authorised facilities.
MoRTH is easiest to understand as the layer above your RTO. The RTO is where you go, and the ministry is where the rule you are complying with was written. Most owners meet it only through a form, which is why its part in scrappage goes unnoticed until a registration expires.
That part is worth knowing when a vehicle reaches the end of its registration. The age thresholds, the authorised facility, the certificate, and its two-year validity all trace back to the same source. Check your registration date first, then decide whether to use the certificate yourself orsell the scrap certificate on DigiELV.
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. It is the Union ministry of the Government of India responsible for road transport policy, motor vehicle rules, and the national highway network.
No. MoRTH writes the central rules. A Regional Transport Office sits under a state transport department and applies those rules to registration, licensing, and fitness.
None. MoRTH is a Union ministry in its own right, headed by a Cabinet Minister, and was separated from the shipping portfolio in 2009.
Notifications are published in the Gazette of India and carried on the ministry's own website and the Parivahan portal, which is also where vehicle records are held.
Through registration, fitness, and scrappage rules. ELV owners scrap at authorised RVSFs and trade the Certificate of Deposit on DigiELV, the MoRTH-authorised platform under the Vehicle Scrappage Policy 2021.