Govt sets FY17 deadline for energy efficiency norms for vehicles

On a day when Japanese automobile giant Mitsubishi Motors is in the eye of a storm for a fraud involving energy efficiency norms, the 'Transforming India' agenda of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has set the current financial year as the deadline for energy efficiency norms for vehicles.

The government also wants to offer incentives for construction of energy efficient buildings.

After almost four months of Prime Minister Narendra Modi creating groups of top bureaucrats, including "two months of overall process from ideation to action", Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer, NITI Aayog, made a presentation on the actionable points on Thursday at Tenth Civil Services Day here.

ON THE ANVIL

• Third-party scrutiny of road projects implementing agencies by December
   
• Incentive mechanism for contractors for early completion of projects
   
• Dispute resolution board for PPP road projects
   
• Nationwide toll collection system for highways
   
• Incentives for construction of energy efficient buildings

Source: Secretaries' presentation

In the road sector, the government would introduce third-party scrutiny of road projects execution agencies by December 2016. An incentive mechanism for contractors for early completion of road projects would also be put in place. A dispute resolution board for public-private partnership road projects would also be set up by September 2016. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced setting up of such a board on the recommendation of the Vijay Kelkar-headed expert panel on PPP.

Besides, a nation-wide toll collection system for highways would also be put in place by September. The National Highways Authority of India had taken up a pilot for seamless movement on the Delhi-Mumbai National Highway 8 through a touch card that works on all booths, but the system has not been very successful so far.

The government would also attempt to put in place a sales module of coal-net to generate electronic delivery orders by March 2017.

Some of the recommendations made by 11-member secretaries' group on energy conservation and efficiency including amending tariff policy to mandate purchase of power from waste-to-energy plants and treatment of waste water by thermal plants do not find a mention in Kant's presentation but the ministry of power is already working on these.