[sustran] FW: more transport news from CSE, India
Paul Barter
geobpa at nus.edu.sg
Sat Oct 6 11:11:25 JST 2001
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.
...
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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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