Govt to soon notify fuel efficiency norms for vehicles

The government will soon notify fuel efficiency standards for vehicles in the country based on consumption of fuel per litre.

"The exercise to notify fuel efficiency standards based on KMPL (Kilometre per litre) is in the final stages. However, it is still to be decided whether the Ministry of Power will notify this or the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways," a Transport Ministry official today said.

The standards will be enforced from 2011, the official told reporters on the sidelines of the concluding day of the two-day 4th convention on Environmentally Friendly Vehicles (EFV).

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had said yesterday that administrative formalities were being finalised for the notification either through the Energy Conservation Act or the Motor Vehicles Act.

At present, the transport sector is placed at number three after the power and agriculture sectors, as far as emissions of green house gases are concerned.

Earlier, addressing the convention, Joint Secretary Transport S K Dash said that 11 cities of the country would be brought under the Bharat Stage IV standards on emission norms from April 1, 2010, which is equivalent to Euro IV regulations.

These cities, include Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore,Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur and Agra.

Rest of the cities will be under Bharat Stage III emission norms.

He said the government was also in the process of notifying pure hydrogen as fuel as hydrogen fuel powered vehicles have zero emission.

"Indian Oil Corporation is in the process of developing hydrogen fuel in collaboration with Automotive Research Association of India," Dash said.