Kolkata, Aug 1 - Commuters here had a tough time Saturday as taxis and auto rickshaws kept off the roads while police started seizing commercial vehicles over 15 years old in accordance with a court order. Protesting vehicle operators damaged six buses and put up road blocks, police said.

'The situation is generally peaceful. There is a strong police arrangement. The only disturbance was reported from the Tollygunge area under Regent Park police station, which is under the jurisdiction of the West Bengal police,' Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner (detective department) Jawed Shamim told IANS here.

Shamim said two vehicles -- an auto rickshaw and a taxi -- had been seized so far.

'Practically no auto rickshaws are plying. Only a few green autos hit the streets,' he said, on the first day of the Calcutta High Court-imposed ban on old commercial vehicles which are the principal source of high air pollution in the city.

The decks were cleared for the government to seize the buses, mini buses, taxis and auto rickshaws after the Supreme Court Friday refused to stay the high court order banning commercial vehicles built before 1993.

Police and Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed in large number to prevent disturbances, as security personnel moved alongside motor vehicles department officials to identify the banned vehicles on the city streets.

Nearly 4,000 private buses, 6,800 taxis and more than 95 percent of the total fleet of 65,000 auto-rickshaws have been barred from the Kolkata Metropolitan Area following the court order.

Meanwhile, following main opposition Trinamool Congress chief and Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee's accusation that government departments like the police as also the Kolkata Municipal Corporation were running vehicles over 15 years old, Police Commissioner Goutam Mohan Chakraborty said the city police have decided not to deploy such vehicles.