1.4.20

India keeps date with BS-VI fuels

India will keep its date with ultra-clean Bharat Stage-VI fuels today, leapfrogging from BS-IV amidst slump in demand and constraints on movement in the last five weeks due to the countrywide lockdown.

“The April 1 deadline (for a countrywide switch to BS-VI) is intact. The country will switch over to BS-VI petrol and diesel. In fact, we started selling these fuels across the country about 10-12 days ago,” Sanjiv Singh. chairman of India’s largest fuel retailer IndianOil said.

“The oil industry is braving the odds to supply fuel for vehicles carrying essentials and homes for cooking. We are running our refineries and other operations to ensure the country leapfrogs to BS-VI as planned. This shows the strength of India’s oil industry,” Hindustan Petroleum chairman M K Surana said.

Executives of Bharat Petroleum too said all their outlets have become “BS-VI compliant. Private marketers too are ready.

The switchover is a global feat as no other major economy is known to have improved fuel standards two notches up at one go by skipping an intermediary stage. The roadmap was drawn in January 2016, when the Narendra Modi government decided to skip the intermediary BS-V stage in an effort to quickly improve the quality of fuel to reduce vehicular emission. BSVI fuels are similar to, but not the same as, Euro-VI standard and have better emission parameters than CNG in some respects.

No comments: