'CNG conversion to help autorickshaw owners'

Autorickshaw owners will, on an average, save over Rs 100 per day on fuel if they convert their vehicles from petrol to compressed natural gas.

Conversion to compressed natural gas (CNG) will also reduce air pollution levels in the state, said Pranav Mehta, advisor, CNG, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd (GSPC) on Sunday.

Addressing a seminar organised by GSPC to make rickshaw owners and drivers aware of the benefits of converting to CNG a fuel and emphasising that the government was intent on implementing CNG in all public transport vehicles, Mehta said, "Besides reducing pollution levels, the autorickshaw owners will end up saving Rs 110 per day by converting to CNG," he said.

Autorickshaw owners will require to invest around Rs 20,000 in installing CNG conversion kits on to their vehicles, and once installed, the vehicles will be able to ply on both, CNG as well as petrol.

While autorickshaw owners, who had turned up at the seminar from all over the state, welcomed the idea, their main concern was spending Rs 20,000 on the conversion kits.

Citing an example, Mehta said that for an old autorickshaw which travels 100 km per day on an average, the cost per day is around Rs 160 given that the vehicle run 25 km per litre, with the petrol costing Rs 35 per litre.

After converting it to CNG, the daily costs come down to Rs 50. "CNG is available at around Rs 20 a kilogramme and it gives 40 kilometres per kg. This means that the net gain is Rs 110," he said.

Explaining further, Mehta told the members of several rickshaw drivers' and owners' associations that if an autorickshaw was used for 25 days in a month, the monthly savings amount to Rs 2,750, which translates into savings of over Rs 30,000 in a year.

"Rickshaw owners can recover the money spent on installing CNG conversion kits within a year, as CNG conversion kits for autorickshaws is worth about Rs 20,000" he said.

As of April 2002, there were 68,064 autorickshaws in Ahmedabad, 38,275 autorickshaws in Surat and 22,025 autorickshaws in Vadodara. The pollution control board has identified autorickshaws to be one of the major contributors to a the high level of air pollution in Ahmedabad and other cities of Gujarat.

State minister for energy and petrochemicals, Saurabh Dalal assured the rickshaw drivers' association that the state government was willing to sit with them and sort out all issues, but at the same time, it was firm on getting all autorickshaws converted to CNG.

"What is important to understand is that CNG will be cheaper than petrol and ultimately, the investment of Rs 20,000 will be beneficial for the rickshaw owners," he said.

Parthiv Adhyaru, chairman of Nutan Nagarik Co-operative bank announced at the seminar that the bank will provide soft loans to the first 1,000 autorickshaw owners who approach the bank for a loan to install kits to convert their vehicles from petrol to compressed natural gas.

Rickshaw driver unions however said that they expect the government to provide some subsidy for converting to CNG, as most drivers will not be in a position to invest Rs 20,000 for the CNG kit.