News Detail

<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">A roadmap has been put in place to bring in different grades of fuel efficiency but uniform implementation of more cleaner BS-IV fuel norms across the country may take time, Planning Commission Member, Saumitra Chaudhuri said today.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">&ldquo;A roadmap has been put in place which has brought in different grades of fuel efficiency in a thematic fashion. As technology takes a long term view, it may take time before Bharat Stage (BS) IV will be uniformly applicable across the country,&rdquo; Chaudhuri said while addressing PETROTECH-2014 conference here.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">He said petroleum products in the country are priced where producers are not able to recover their costs. On usage of alternative fuel, he said options like electric vehicles and hybrids can be considered.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">&ldquo;However, for all these options, public transports like buses are the low hanging fruit which needs to be capitalised upon in the initial stage. Another solution that could be replicated in other states is the use of CNG in buses. Given the price and shortage of gas this may be an expensive option,&rdquo; Chaudhuri said further. Also, he said that technology upgradation would be far more possible if the petroleum product prices were reflective of the costs incurred in their production.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">L N Gupta, Secretary, Oil Industry Development Board, said that government is planning to expand BS-IV auto fuel norms to 50 more cities by 2015. BS-IV norms were implemented in 13 cities across the country in April 2010. Emphasising on research and development in fuel sector, Gupta said that between 2005 and 2010, oil companies invested a huge sum of INR 30,000 crore for improvement projects to make fuel available for BS- IV norms.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">He further said there is a need to undertake a cost benefit analysis to move to Euro-V norms but that will require additional cost. &ldquo;There is a huge additional cost of further fuel upgradation (estimated at INR 80,000 crore to move to Euro-V) vis-a-vis the additional advantage,&rdquo; Gupta said.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Source-On Request</span></span></span></p>