Ahead of the mandatory introduction of environment friendly Bharat Stage-IV emission standard, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Wednesday said that industry has not sought any deferment or delay in the implementation of the emission norm.
"Contrary to the misinformation being perpetuated by certain sections of the society, specially environmental activists, the auto industry is fully committed to commence manufacturing of BS IV vehicles from April 1, 2017, across the country," Vinod Dasari, President of SIAM and Managing Director of Ashok Leyland, was quoted as saying in a statement.
The BS emission standard were first introduced in the year 2000. The BS-IV will come into effect from April 1, 2017, as no manufacturer will be allowed to produce any variant below the new emission standard's phase four.
The BS standards regulate the permissible limits of air pollutants released from internal combustion automobile engines.
According to Dasari, auto industry has fully complied with all technical regulations in the past and will remain fully compliant in future also.
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Besides, SIAM elaborated that Indian auto industry has been the fastest in the world to upgrade its emission norms.
"While Europe took 13 years to implement the Euro 4 stage, Indian industry took only 10 years to introduce BS IV emission norms, which were first introduced in 2010," Dasari said.
"Therefore, the industry has been manufacturing BS IV compliant passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles since the year 2010."
The industry association blamed the non-availability of BS IV fuel across the country, and said this has forced some categories of four-wheeled vehicles to remain at the BS III stage till April 1, 2017.
"The Indian auto industry will also be the first in the world to leapfrog from BS IV to BS VI emission norms in a short period of 3 years by 2020, while even the developed countries took about 10 years and also progressed stage by stage without any leapfrogging," Dasari added.
"The record of the Indian automotive industry in respect of compliance with all technical regulations has always been impeccable."
--IANS
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