NEW DELHI: To check growing air pollution, the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways is coming up with standards for bio-diesel run vehicles on the lines of diesel and petrol vehicles. The step is meant to encourage production of vehicles run on biofuel, which is a less-polluting alternative.
The draft mass emission standards for bio-diesel (B100) has been prepared in consultation with all stake holders, including automobile companies, who have been producing engine compatible to run bio-diesel in other countries. The ministry is ready to open the market for all types of biofuels such as ethanol, biogas, methane and biodiesel, among others.
Biofuels are prevalent the world over but India has not ventured into it till now. Once effective, the companies will be allowed to manufacture vehicles fitted with engine compatible to run on diesel or a mixture with bio-diesel, using up to 100 per cent bio-diesel.
The decision has been taken to cut the dependence on crude oil and bring down pollution caused by increasing number of vehicles especially in metro cities. In Delhi, 1,300 to 1,400 vehicles are being registered every day including heavy and light vehicles and two-wheelers. The standards also list emission tests to be carried on the lines of Pollution Under Control Certificates (PUC) issued in case of petrol and diesel vehicles.
“We have been approached by several automobile companies that they are ready to produce bio-diesel driven vehicles but the problem was that there were no standards. Keeping in mind that India needs to bring down carbon emission and shifting to biofuels can contribute a big time, we decided to come up with bio-diesel emission standards,” said a senior ministry official.
The draft has been put in public domain for final consultation and replies have been sought by December 26.
“We have abundance of sugarcane and India is the second major sugarcane producing country in the world after Brazil. We can use sugarcane for production of ethanol to run vehicles. So there are massive opportunities and with these norms, the door to explore green fuels will open,” the official added.
The National Green Tribunal on Friday stopped any new registration of diesel vehicles in Delhi till January 6, 2016. It asked Delhi government to formulate a policy in this regard.
According to official data, sale of passenger cars grew from 5 per cent to 1.87 million in the country during 2014-15 from the previous fiscal and sale of utility vehicle grew 5.3 per cent to 5,50,000 units during this period.