With the spectre of diesel-shortage looming large in Bangalore, IT major Wipro Limited has resolved to spearhead a campaign for the introduction of compressed natural gas (CNG) for vehicles plying on the city’s roads.
“As 60 per cent of our employees travel by the company buses that run on diesel, a shortage or non-availability of diesel in the city will make our employee travel logistics go haywire. To pre-empt such situations, we are thinking of taking up the CNG issue with the Karnataka government,” Wipro’s joint CEO Girish S Paranjpe told Business Standard.
Wipro, along with a few other IT companies, had bracketed diesel-shortage in their ‘high-risk’ category after consumption of diesel in the city touched an all-time high of 2,900 kilo litre (KL) per day in the second half of July as industries and commercial establishments switched over to diesel generator sets in a bid to counter frequent power cuts.
During the corresponding period in 2007, diesel consumption in the city was 1,600 KL per day. As a result of the shortage, several IT-BPO companies faced problems in ferrying employees from home to office on time as cabs and buses were stranded for want of diesel.
“Though diesel shortages were only for a short period, we realised that it will be a risk in future. So we are thinking of switching to CNG in our vehicles and working from home,” Paranjpe said while being confident about other companies rallying behind Wipro in requesting the government to consider introducing CNG, like it has been done in New Delhi.
Moreover, the move will reduce pollution levels in the city and be in tune with Wipro’s Eco-eye, an initiative on ecological sustainability.
According to environmentalists, natural gas produces 90 per cent lesser emissions of particulate matter than diesel. It was introduced in the USA, UK, Canada and Italy in the 1930s and the global availability of natural gas has been estimated to be around 180 trillion cubic metres (TCM).
In India, while natural gas availability is estimated to be around 700 billion cubic metres (BCM), the present usage is only around 22 BCM.
Though this risk mitigation strategy of Wipro warrants appreciation, it is easier said than done.
For, a proposal to this effect, which was made five years ago following a public uproar against government’s failure to check pollution by autorickshaws that run on petrol and diesel, continues to gather dust.
The government put the CNG proposal on the back burner citing problems pertaining to sourcing of the gas and instead made it mandatory for autorickshaws to convert from petrol/diesel to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
“We spiked the idea as we had to source CNG from Iran and other Central Asia countries. Financially, it was not viable at that point of time,” a senior transport department official said.
Paranjpe, however, exudes optimism in convincing the BJP government in the state on the issue. “It is a new government and we hope they will respond to our suggestion on the CNG issue,” he added.
