Heavy Vehicle No Entry Timings: City by City Guide for Truck Operators

A truck that reaches the city limit ten minutes into the restricted window does not get in. It waits on the shoulder for hours with the driver's time, the e-way bill's validity and the customer's patience all running down.

This guide explains how heavy vehicle no entry timings work in Indian cities, gives the officially notified windows where a current notification could be confirmed (Delhi), and for Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata explains who sets the rules and how to check them before you dispatch. Everything here is as checked in October 2026.

Heavy vehicle no entry timings: how they work

City entry restrictions come from Section 115 of the Motor Vehicles Act, which lets the state government or an authority it empowers restrict the use of vehicles in an area or on a road. In practice, the traffic police or the police commissionerate of each city issues the order, and it can be changed by a fresh notification at any time.

Whether drivers call the vehicle a lorry or a truck, the order applies by weight class, and most orders share the same structure:

• By vehicle class. Heavy goods vehicles face the longest restrictions, medium goods vehicles shorter ones, and light goods vehicles often only peak hour limits.
• By time. A daytime ban with a night entry window, or a morning and evening peak hour ban, sometimes with different windows on Saturdays.
• By road. Flyovers, elevated corridors and central business districts often carry their own all day or all hours restrictions.
• By event. Festivals, processions, examinations and VIP visits bring temporary orders that override the normal timetable for a day or a week.

Many orders exempt vehicles carrying essential goods such as milk, vegetables, medicines and fuel, but the list differs by city and order. Read the exemption clause rather than assuming your load qualifies.

Delhi: the notified windows

Delhi is the one city in this guide where the current standing windows could be confirmed against the official text.

The Delhi Traffic Police notification dated 21 June 2024, published in the Delhi Gazette on 27 June 2024, made the restriction timings uniform for heavy, medium and light goods vehicles, to align them with the windows notified by the Delhi Transport Department:

• Daytime restriction: 7 AM to 11 PM
• Peak hour restriction: 7 AM to 11 AM and 5 PM to 11 PM

The notification replaced a patchwork of windows. Before it, Delhi's orders carried 10 different daytime windows and 11 different peak hour windows on different roads.

The notification did not change which vehicle or road carries which restriction, since that stays under the existing orders. What it changed was the hours, which are now the same everywhere a restriction applies, and that makes planning far simpler.

Delhi's pollution rule sits on top

Timing is not the only gate. Under the Commission for Air Quality Management's Direction No. 88, from 1 November 2025 goods vehicles registered outside Delhi may enter only if they are BS-VI, CNG, LNG or electric. An amendment of 17 October 2025 allowed BS-IV goods vehicles to keep entering up to 31 October 2026. BS-III and older diesel goods vehicles registered outside Delhi are not allowed in at all, and vehicles registered in Delhi sit outside this rule.

The 31 October 2026 cut off is weeks away at the time of writing. Check whether it has been extended before sending a BS-IV vehicle towards Delhi, and remember that restrictions under each stage of the Graded Response Action Plan apply on top. The BS6 guide explains the emission classes.

Heavy vehicle entry time in Chennai

Chennai's goods vehicle timings are notified by the Greater Chennai Traffic Police, which has long restricted heavy goods vehicles inside city limits during the day and allowed entry at night, alongside road specific and festival orders such as the Deepavali arrangements around T Nagar.

A current consolidated notification with the standing windows could not be confirmed in October 2026, so this guide does not print hours that may be out of date. Two things matter when you check:

• The metro has three commissionerates. Greater Chennai, Tambaram and Avadi police each issue orders for their own areas, so a route that crosses from the suburbs into the city can cross from one set of rules to another.
• Event orders are frequent. Festival and procession orders change the timetable for days at a time.

Check the Greater Chennai Traffic Police's official website and social media accounts on the day of travel, and ask the local traffic police station for roads near your delivery point.

Heavy vehicle entry time in Coimbatore

Coimbatore City Police restrict heavy vehicles within city limits during the morning and evening peaks, and local reporting through 2025 described enforcement drives against tipper lorries running inside those hours. VIP visits bring separate diversion orders for heavy vehicles approaching from Salem, Erode and Tiruppur.

The exact current hours could not be confirmed against an official order in October 2026. Check with Coimbatore City Police's official channels before routing a heavy vehicle through the city, especially around Avinashi Road and the airport side.

Truck no entry time in Bangalore

Bengaluru Traffic Police restrict heavy goods vehicles inside the city during the weekday morning and evening peaks, and in August 2024 introduced separate Saturday windows based on congestion data. Corridor rules add another layer: from September 2026, police began restricting goods vehicles on several elevated roads on a trial basis.

Wider changes are also under discussion, including proposals for longer daytime bans on heavy trucks that police said would go through stakeholder consultation. Because the rules are actively moving, this guide does not print a window. Check the Bengaluru Traffic Police website and its official social media accounts before dispatch.

Mumbai

Mumbai Traffic Police issued a fresh order effective 1 February 2026 that tightened peak hour restrictions on heavy vehicles across the city, with stricter limits in South Mumbai and curbs on parking heavy vehicles on public roads.

Navi Mumbai and Thane are separate police commissionerates with their own orders, so a run from JNPT into the island city meets more than one set of rules. Check the current order on the Mumbai Traffic Police's official website or social media, and the Navi Mumbai and Thane police notices for the approach roads.

Hyderabad

Greater Hyderabad is policed by more than one commissionerate, and each issues its own goods vehicle timings. The Hyderabad City Police order of early 2024 set separate entry windows for local lorries, medium goods vehicles and heavy tippers, and kept inter district and national permit lorries off city routes. Cyberabad and the other neighbouring commissionerates have issued their own peak hour orders since.

The windows differ between commissionerates, so identify which one covers your delivery address first, then check that commissionerate's latest traffic notification.

Kolkata

Kolkata Police issue numbered traffic notifications, and many restrictions on goods vehicles are event based: festivals, examinations, processions and state functions, usually with exemptions for essential goods. Howrah Police issue matching orders for the Howrah side.

Check the latest notifications on the Kolkata Traffic Police website before any run into the city, especially in the festival season.

How to check before you dispatch

Five checks, in this order, cover almost every surprise.

1. Find the commissionerate that covers your delivery address, not just the city name.
2. Read the latest standing order on that traffic police's official website or social media.
3. Look for event notices for your delivery date: festivals, processions, examinations, VIP movement.
4. Check pollution curbs where they apply, such as Delhi's entry rules by emission class.
5. Time the arrival for the start of the permitted window, with a buffer for the queue at the limit.

Planning around no entry windows

The operators who lose least to restrictions plan the vehicle as well as the route.

Stage outside the city. A heavy lorry that reaches a yard outside the limit by evening can enter as soon as the window opens, instead of queuing on the shoulder.

Use a smaller vehicle for the last mile. Light goods vehicles usually face shorter restrictions than heavy ones, so a transfer to an LCV or a mini truck can turn a night delivery into a day one. Electric goods vehicles are worth a look for regular city runs, as the electric truck listings show.

Protect the paperwork clock. Hours lost waiting count against the e-way bill's validity, which the e-way bill guide explains, and against the driver's hours.

Heavy vehicle no entry timings change more often than any other rule in this series. Check the official source on the day, and treat any list, including this one, as the starting point rather than the answer.