Agra genset sector reeling under norms' heat

Most units unable to meet pollution norms enforced by state government

Barely a couple of years back, the diesel engine industry of Agra was among the largest diesel engine manufacturers of the country, manufacturing over 125,000 gensets every year.

During the past two years, the industry has faced a setback due to stringent pollution norms enforced by the state government.

Of around 800 small-scale units manufacturing diesel engine components in Agra, at least 60 per cent units have shut down, plunging their owners into debts while the generator production in the town has come to a standstill.

Even large generator manufacturing companies like Sterling Machine Tools had to announce an untimely shutdown of its Agra units last year while many other units had to cut back on their operating costs to tide over the difficult period.

Citing a reason behind the panic through the industrial circles in Agra, Sanjeev Mittal, managing director, Atul Group of Industries said the diesel engines being produced in Agra were not compliant with Euro-II emission norms because of which the units were not able to get certification from the Central Pollution Control Board which was mandatory for generators.

He said though it was possible to achieve Euro-II norms after adequate research and development, it was an expensive process that few companies in the town could afford at this stage. He said most of the generator manufacturers were shifting to CNG-based gensets that were CPCB compliant.

However, Agra-based BS Agriculture Industries (India) have achieved Euro-II emission standards for its diesel engines after five years of R&D.

Talking to Business Standard, Narendra Singh, partner, BS Agriculture Industries (India) said with the new engine developed by the company being certified as Euro-II compliant, they were all set to begin marketing four variants of the Euro-II engine within a month of it being granted a stamp of approval from Bureau of Indian Standards.

He said the engine had been type-tested by the Automotive Research Institute of India at Pune three months back and found to be compliant with the CPCB standards.

Initially, the company wouldl launch only 9, 10, 18 and 20 horse power capacity engines though there were plans to get both smaller and larger engines type-tested soon, he added.

According to Singh, the company was the second company after Kirloskar to meet Euro-II emission requirements. The company is aiming to overtake the Kirloskar engine market share in the domestic genset market, after which, it shall target exporting to the overseas market, especially Australia, West Africa and Africa that already formed 25 per cent of the company's total production.