A roadmap has been put in place to bring in different grades of fuel efficiency but uniform implementation of more cleaner BS-IV fuel norms across the country may take time, Planning Commission Member Saumitra Chaudhuri said today.
"... A roadmap has been put in place which has brought in different grades of fuel efficiency in a thematic fashion. As technology takes a long term view, it may take time before Bharat Stage (BS) IV will be uniformly applicable across the country," Chaudhuri said while addressing PETROTECH-2014 conference here.
He said petroleum products in the country are priced where producers are not able to recover their costs.
On usage of alternative fuel, he said options like electric vehicles and hybrids can be considered.
"However, for all these options, public transport like buses are the low hanging fruit which needs to be capitalised upon in the initial stage. Another solution that could be replicated in other states is the use of CNG in buses. Given the price and shortage of gas this may be an expensive option," Chaudhuri said further.
Also, he said that technology upgradation would be far more possible if the petroleum product prices were reflective of the costs incurred in their production.
L N Gupta, Secretary, Oil Industry Development Board, said that government is planning to expand BS IV auto fuel norms to 50 more cities by 2015. BS IV norms were implemented in 13 cities across the country in April 2010.
Emphasising on research and development in fuel sector, Gupta said that between 2005 and 2010, oil companies invested a huge sum of Rs 30,000 crore for improvement projects to make fuel available for BS IV norms.
He further said there is a need to undertake a cost benefit analysis to move to Euro V norms but that will require additional cost.
"There is a huge additional cost of further fuel upgradation (estimated at Rs 80,000 crore to move to Euro V) vis-a-vis the additional advantage," Gupta said.
