November 22, 2001
'20'
SHRI RAM NAIK SUGGESTS STRICT CHECK ON ILLEGAL USE OF LPG FOR AUTOMOBILES
The Government is planning to bring down subsidy on domestic LPG to 15% after 2001 as a result of dismantling of "Administered Price" and Separate Oil Pool Account System. This will be done gradually so that consumers should not have immediate burden. This was stated by Shri Ram Naik, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas while inaugurating an Open House on "Auto LPG-Smarter Alternative" organised by the ASSOCHAM here today. He said that to make available clean fuel to the consumers is one of the important issues at the moment before the Petroleum Ministry and it had already set up a Committee under the Chairmanship of Shri Machealker to make its recommendations in this regard. The Committee will submit its report by the next month. Shri Ram Naik further said that the LPG being a clean and environmentally friendly fuel has been introduced by the Government as an automotive fuel. He also said that availability of LPG as fuel has considerably improved with the development of new LPG import facility and augmentation in indigenous production by achieving self sufficiency in refining. The availability has also supplemented by the introduction of parallel marketing scheme. Earlier, due to overall restricted LPG availability in the country and priority being given to the domestic/non-domestic sectors, LPG was not used as an automotive fuel.
Shri Naik said that the World LPG Association’s Global Autogas Industry Network (GAIN)who is promoting use of LPG as an Auto fuel the world over, has brought out that alternate cleaner Automotive fuels have a key role to play in addressing worsening environmental problems caused by rising consumption of road transportation fuels. Auto LPG, known as Autogas, the world over, is rapidly establishing itself as an automotive fuel in many countries. Several countries today have well-developed Auto LPG markets. Global consumption of Auto LPG currently exceeds 11.5 million tonnes per year, and is increasing rapidly. The ten largest Auto LPG markets worldwide are south Korea, Japan, Australia, Italy, United States, Netherlands, Mexico, Canada, Russia and Poland.
The Minister informed PSU oil companies have drawn out a detailed action plan for setting up of 228 Auto LPG Dispensing stations (ALDS) in the country by 2003-04. Out of 228 ALDS, 3 have already been commissioned one each by IOC, BPC and HPC. Out of these 2 ALDS are functioning in Delhi and one in Mumbai. 46 ALDS have been planned to be commissioned during 2001-02, 153 during 2002-03 and 26 during 2003-04 by the PSU oil companies in the cities of delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and some other major cities like Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Chandigarh, Jullundur, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Patna, Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kochi. Testing agencies as notified under the Central Motor Vehicle (3rd Amendment) Rules (CMVR) 2001 by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MRT&H) will issue shortly "Type approval" for "LPG conversion kit". As this is the major concern for marketing of Auto LPG, oil marketing companies are following up with the manufacturers/suppliers and testing agencies for expediting "Type approval" of conversion kit as also for setting up of authorised workshops for retrofitting of conversion kit.
Air-borne emissions of the principal regulated noxious gases from Auto LPG use are among the lowest of all the automotive fuels commercially available today. Auto LPG generates significantly lower carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon and nitrous oxide (NOX) emissions compared to Petrol and much lower-particulate emissions compared to Diesel. Tests have shown that emission of CO and NOX for modern dedicated Auto LPG passenger cars can be reduced by more than 50% compared to Petrol driven vehicles, while hydrocarbon emissions can be cut by around 45%. Auto LPG emissions with respect to unregulated emissions, including air toxics i.e. benzene and butadience are particularly low compared with Petrol, converted Petrol powered spark ignition engines tend to run more smoothly.
Shri Naik informed that Union Petroleum Ministry has urged the State Governments to direct the concerned officials of Transport and Civil Supplies Departments to exercise strict checking of vehicles which are operating illegally on LPG cylinders. This is not only in violation of Auto LPG control order but also jeopardising at times, the life and property of people besides diversion of subsidized domestic LPG.