NEW DELHI: With air pollution rising to dangerous levels in India, home to twenty of the world’s most polluted cities, the Supreme Court on Friday asked why battery-run and solar energy-run vehicles were not being manufactured in the country on a large scale to replace petrol/diesel-run cars.

The SC said many countries were switching over to battery/solar energy-run vehicles and the same could be replicated in India. The court asked the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) to adopt new technology for the benefits of the citizens. “Around the world, cars are being run on battery and solar energy. Why cannot it be done here? If you want to make this country move forward, you have to be innovative,” a Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta told SIAM.

Counsel for the association, told the bench that it was making an all-out effort to meet the deadline of April 1, 2020 for manufacturing of BS-VI compliant vehicles and pleaded with the bench that the time-line should not be advanced as it would be technically impossible to comply with.

Advocates Harish Salve and Aparajita Singh, who are assisting the court as amicus curiae, told the bench that a compensatory amount could be imposed on petrol and diesel-run vehicles in NCR which could be used for pollution-control measures.