The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to implement its direction for a pilot project by which petrol pumps could refuse fuel to vehicles without valid insurance cover.Noting that nearly 56% of vehicles on Indian roads did not have valid insurance cover, the Supreme Court had on August 4 proposed linking fuel supply with valid vehicle insurance as part of a pilot project to stop uninsured vehicles from plying.“You have to implement it… The pilot project may be started from Delhi,” a Bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra on Wednesday told the Centre’s counsel who said the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had some concerns about it.As the counsel told the bench that oil marketing companies will have to sit with the dealers for this, the Bench said, “You start the pilot project.”Asking the Centre to come out with a concrete proposal with timelines to comply with its August 4 directions, the Bench posted the matter for further hearing on August 21.“It is shocking to learn that nearly 56% of vehicles (16.54 crore vehicles out of 30.48 crore vehicles) plying on Indian roads remain uninsured… The consequent effect is that the statutory safeguard of victim compensation is often delayed, if not defeated,” the Bench had said in its August 4 verdict.The number of road accidents for 2024 stood at 4,87,705; 2023 stood at 4,80,583 and 2022 stood at 4,61,312, it said, pointing out the magnitude of the problem.The top court had flagged the lack of compliance of provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act requiring all vehicles to have a valid insurance policy covering third parties.It had directed the Centre to evolve a pilot project by which fuel can be refused at petrol pumps to vehicles not having valid insurance cover. It had directed the Centre to implement a pilot project on certain corridors, substituting the process of stopping at toll plazas with automatic detection of vehicles passing through toll points.The Bench had also “directed that henceforth, third-party insurance for four years for new cars and six years for new two wheelers be required to be purchased.  It asked the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to immediately issue necessary directions in this regard.It had upheld the Telangana High Court’s direction to the National Insurance Company to compensate the family of a man who died in a road accident while travelling in an insured vehicle.