Govt Plans To Phase Out Leaded Petrol In 2 Years

The government is set to phase out leaded petrol all over the country within the next two years depending upon the success of such a measure to be brought into force in the capital from September 1998.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had yesterday announced that the oil companies will be requested to provide only unleaded petrol in Delhi from September as the next phase of the government's plan to control vehicular pollution.

The first phase, introduced in late 1996, involved fitment of catalytic converters (CCs) to all new cars.

Environment ministry sources said the stopping of the supply of leaded petrol did not mean that the provision of Ccs for new vehicles would be done away with. Since it would be very difficult to force all old vehicle owners to fit Ccs, the latter route was being taken.

 

There was a certain apprehension that use of unleaded petrol in non-CC vehicles would damage their engines. This was not true as the Association of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (AIAM) had confirmed that this would not impact on vehicle performance. Further any report of adverse vehicle performance would be looked into by the manufacturers for action.

Further to the CPCB request, the Delhi government is likely to prepare a notification to ban the use of leaded petrol by passenger vehicles in the national capital territory of Delhi.

The move was prompted by an AIAM submission to the Surface transport ministry that all passenger vehicles, including those not fitted with catalytic converters, can use unleaded petrol. This has put to rest a two-year debate within the association on whether catalytic converters were essential for a vehicle to use unleaded petrol.

AIAM has however attached a condition to its submission that mandatory use of unleaded petrol be enforced only after making it widely and easily available. Secondly, the association says that oil supplying companies must ensure that the level of benzene and other aromatic substances available in unleaded petrol does not exceed their level in the leaded petrol being supplied now.

An AIAM study has also shown that the only way scooters can meet the year 2000 emission norms is to fit them with catalytic converters or shift to four-stroke engines.

The domestic automobile industry had long been divided on the use of unleaded petrol, with a section saying that catalytic converters were imperative if a vehicle were to use the lead-free fuel.

The issue came into sharp focus at AIAM's annual general meeting two years ago, following the association's discussions with the government departments concerned on ways to meet the emission norms for year 2000.

The government has set strict emission norms for year 2000, which are equivalent to `Euro-I' level prevalent in Europe for various pollutants like nox, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and other particulate matters.

As a result of these discussions, AIAM had sought advice from scientists and automobile research organisations for technical opinion on ways to meet the norms, without the mandatory fitting of catalytic converters, as suggested by the government then.

The view at that time was that the norms could not be met without catalytic converters, since vehicles not fitted with them could not take unleaded petrol. But a vocal section in the industry demanded that the government insist only on the industry meeting the norms and leave it to the industry to find the ways of meeting them.

Discussions regarding the emission norms for year 2005 which are expected to lower the 2000 standards by a factor of two are still on.