Delhi enforces 'no PUC, no fuel' rule across Delhi-NCR from October 1

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From October 1, fuel stations in Delhi and NCR districts in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are required to verify a vehicle's PUCC before dispensing fuel, under the Commission for Air Quality Management's Direction 101. At stations fitted with ANPR cameras, the system reads the registration number as the vehicle enters and cross-checks it against the central vehicle database; where cameras are not yet available, pump staff use an app to enter or scan the number manually.

Delhi has already been running a no-PUCC, no-fuel system, so October 1 marks an enforcement expansion and intensification across the wider NCR rather than a brand-new rule. District administrations in Noida and Ghaziabad prepared their fuel stations to verify certificate status from October 1, and Gurugram is also tightening fuel-denial checks.

For drivers, the practical takeaway is to confirm the PUC validity before driving to a pump — carrying a paper certificate may not resolve a database mismatch, and the authorities advise checking that a recently renewed certificate is visible in the official record. Number plates must also be readable, since damaged or non-standard plates can cause problems for camera-based verification.

The rollout coincides with Delhi's worst start to October for air quality in four years: the city's Air Quality Index settled at 166 on October 1, in the "moderate" category, with weak ventilation and regional stubble-burning episodes cited as contributing factors.