[sustran] FW: more transport news from CSE, India

[Paul Barter]

Irrelevant stuff has been snipped from forwarded message below...

-----Original Message-----
From: webadmin at cseindia.org [mailto:webadmin at cseindia.org]
Sent: Thursday, 4 October 2001 12:27
To: CSE-LIST2 at listserv.cseindia.org
Subject: What's new at CSE, India

...
What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New  
Delhi, India.  
...
------------------------------------------------- 

METHOD BEHIND THE MADNESS 

THREE years ago (July 28, 1998), the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that  
the total passenger bus fleet of Delhi be increased from the then  
figure of about 6,000 to 10,000 by April 1, 2001 and the entire city  
bus fleet be converted to CNG. Read the latest click 

http://www.cseindia.org/html/cmp/air/cng/cng_diary.htm 

------------------------------------------------- 

WHAT IS CLEAN FUEL? 

The EPCA cracks the conundrum and comes up with solutions to  
implement the Supreme Court order. More at 

http://www.cseindia.org/html/cmp/air/cng/cng_EPCAreport.htm 

------------------------------------------------- 

A message from the Chairperson, Anil Agarwal: 

IS NAIK SERIOUS ABOUT AUTO FULES POLICY? 

THE ministry of petroleum has cleverly reduced air pollution control  
to a high school debate on compressed natural gas (CNG) versus  
diesel. During the recent meeting with prime minister Atal Behari  
Vajpayee, the Union government dismissed the plea for an ordinance to  
override the Supreme Court orders to convert Delhi's bus fleet to  
CNG. But newspapers did report that a committee will be set up under  
R A Mashelkar, director-general of the Council of Scientific and  
Industrial Research (CSIR), to recommend a mix of fuels like CNG and  
Euro II diesel (widely publicised by the pro-diesel lobby as low  
sulphur diesel (LSD) which has 500 parts per million (ppm) sulphur)  
for the metros of India. The findings of this committee, if it is  
ever set up, would have major implications for pollution control. 

In the entire media reportage, two things have got lost. One, the  
Supreme Court is not promoting CNG, LSD or any other fuel but is  
trying to clean up the air of Delhi and hopefully set a model for the  
rest of urban India suffering from serious air pollution. Two, there  
is already a report prepared by an Inter-Ministerial Task Force for  
evolving a policy and road map on fuel quality, submitted only a few  
months ago, but is gathering dust. Now petroleum minister (or should  
I say, monopolist) Ram Naik wants yet another committee.  

The automobile industry is currently producing Euro II cars for the  
National Capital Region under the orders of the Supreme Court. These  
vehicles were to come to India in 2005. Slowly, these vehicles are  
being introduced into the four metros across the country with the  
availability of Euro II petrol and diesel. But the rest of the  
country will benefit from Euro II vehicles and fuels, believe it or  
not, only by 2005, nine years behind Europe - which already has  
reasonably clean air and a pretty stable urban human and vehicular  
population. Our refineries will continue to produce Euro I quality  
diesel and petrol till then.  

The road map committee offered two suggestions. One, refineries  
should produce Euro III petrol and diesel (350 ppm sulphur diesel,  
introduced in Europe in 2000) for six metro-cities (Delhi, Kolkata,  
Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore) by 2005. But, the second  
option, which it considered more desirable (because the first option  
would hardly reduce pollution) is to introduce Euro-III fuels across  
the country by 2005 and ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD) with 10 ppm  
sulphur for the metrocities by then. 

But six months have gone by since this exercise was conducted. Naik's  
ministry has not even cared to respond. If there is no effort by his  
ministry to deal with pollution problems, then what else can we  
expect, but the Supreme Court ordering CNG for the Delhi's bus fleet  
despite Naik's discomfiture over CNG. Even Chandrababu Naidu has  
announced that he would like to move all Hyderabad buses to liquefied  
petroleum gas (LPG) and CNG, having been deeply impressed by the CNG  
buses that he saw in Beijing.    

If there is any benefit from globalisation, it is that a nation can  
avail of the latest technology worldwide. With so many global auto  
players now operating in India, they can easily be forced to improve  
the emissions of their vehicles. The Society of Indian Automobile  
Manufacturers (SIAM) has already presented a road map for vehicular  
emissions. This road map can be greatly improved but even this cannot  
move ahead unless Naik is prepared to give the corresponding fuel.  

Unfortunately, Naik is not the only anti-environment minister. His  
colleague, B C Khanduri, who runs the Ministry of Road Transport and  
Highways is another one. At a meeting in January this year, Central  
Pollution Control Board (CPCB) chairperson asked whether there was  
any problem in imposing stringent fuel and vehicle standards for air  
pollution hotspots like the Indian metros in advance of the rest of  
the country. Representatives of the automobile industry made  
agreeable noises. But the MRTH representative protested. "Such norms  
would open up a Pandora's box and other state governments and high  
courts would demand similar norms." After that the auto and petroleum  
industry representatives shut up.  

Either we meet the air pollution challenge or we just forget it. This  
debate over CNG vs diesel is quite puerile. We know that India has  
allowed millions to die because of lack of food and clean water over  
the last 50 years. Why doesn't Naik simply say: What does it matter  
if a million or more die because of air pollution? The statistics  
will not even say so. They will call these murders by innocuous names  
like cancer, asthma and heart problems. 

The problem is simple: The hon'ble minister Naik does not believe  
that pollution or public health is an issue for governance. He has  
produced LSD, Euro II diesel, call it what you want, and that's it.  
This problem runs through his ministry. A few years ago, the  
Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) had gone to see the  
then petroleum secretary, T Vijayraghavan, to plead for rapid  
cleaning up of petroleum fuels. The secretary left everyone  
speechless when he asked, "Is air pollution really a serious problem  
in Delhi?" Nothing obviously came out of the meeting. Sometimes I  
truly wonder: Are we chasing some chimera? 

Why doesn't Naik simply say: What does it matter if a million or more  
die because of air pollution? 

- Anil Agarwal 

(This article is also available online at 
http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20010930/dte_edit.htm  

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...
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Website Unit 
Centre for Science and Environment 

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