By Sanjay Thapa Jeet
India is now one of the first countries in the world to move to Bharat Stage (BS) VI fuels, with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas launching the BSVI version of petrol and diesel in the National Capital Region (NCR). Unfortunately, the move to cleaner fuel will probably not be very effective since most of the vehicles in the capital and the country still have the older BSIV compliant engines.
According to the petroleum ministry, the government has jumped from BSIV to BSVI fuel well ahead of time. Initially, the government had envisaged implementing BSVI by 2023, especially following a Supreme Court directive on the matter. The government now plans to skip the BSV norms, which was scheduled to go into effect in 2019, and instead roll out BSVI fuel across the country by 2020. BSVI will lower the sulphur content in the fuel to just 10 ppm from the current BSIV levels of 50 ppm. The BS norms help the government keep a check on air pollution from internal combustion engines used in vehicles and other instruments and equipment.
Why implement BSVI now?
The Centre’s attempt to implement BSVI in NCR comes after the recent alarming rise in pollution levels that rivals only Beijing. The petroleum ministry said that the rescheduling BSVI implementation must be appreciated, as it has come about due to efforts by the ministry itself, as well as the refineries that have implemented new technologies to reduce the ppm levels in the fuels. The move has also prescheduled the production of BSVI fuels.
The petroleum ministry has said that the new BSVI fuel will not cost extra, as of now. However, the fact remains that even though almost all automobiles in NCR are non-BSVI compliant, ministry officials maintain that the current post-engine emission device, like the catalytic converter, will enable lesser ppm levels than that of the earlier BSIV levels. It is also expected to reduce nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and other particulate matter from the emissions of the combustion engines. But experts claim that running non BSVI compliant cars on BSVI fuel would, in the long run impact a vehicle’s engine efficiency.
Car manufacturers will now be forced to switch to the new BSVI compliant engines immediately. At present, apart from the Mercedes Benz S class cars, no other cars available in India are capable of running on BSVI fuels. Automakers like Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland are said to be gearing up to roll out BSVI compliant engines in the coming months. According to government officials, the ministry has written to automakers as well as the Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures to help convert their export vehicles such that they can be used in India since they are already BSVI compliant.
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