Lucknow, Sept. 7 -- Nearly 40,000 e-rickshaws in Lucknow may face de-registration and eventual scrapping if their owners fail to comply with mandatory fitness and insurance requirements. This is part of the transport department's plan to deal with a growing number of non-compliant vehicles in the city. The department is considering suspending the registration of e-rickshaws that have remained without valid fitness certificates or insurance for a prolonged period. Owners will be given six months to rectify the deficiencies. Vehicles that remain non-compliant after the deadline could be de-registered, seized and sent to authorised scrapping centres, officials said. However, the department has not yet finalised the date from which the proposed six-month period will begin. Pradeep Kumar, ARTO (administration), Lucknow, said the immediate challenge was the large number of e-rickshaws already registered in the city. There is currently no prescribed limit on the number of e-rickshaws that can be registered or sold in Lucknow, he said. "The problem is that so many e-rickshaws have already been registered in the city that we are now seeing these problems. There is no rule that fixes a maximum number of e-rickshaws that can operate in the city or restricts their sale beyond a particular number," he said. The proposed action will therefore focus on enforcement of existing statutory requirements rather than placing a fresh cap on registrations. Officials said action under Section 53 of the Motor Vehicles Act could be taken against vehicles that fail to meet the required conditions. Section 53 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 allows a registering authority or prescribed authority to suspend the certificate of registration of a motor vehicle. The issue of unfit e-rickshaws has also come up during proceedings before the Allahabad high court. In an affidavit submitted before the court in 2025, the transport department had stated that 70% of e-rickshaw and e-auto owners in Lucknow had not obtained fitness certificates....