UPDATE - Indian court asked to reconsider clean fuel order
Date: 28-Mar-01
Country: INDIA
On Monday, the court, which has been at the forefront of a drive to clean up Delhi's dirty air, stuck to its demand that owners of pollution-belching buses switch from diesel to compressed natural gas (CNG).
However, it extended the deadline for transporters to change by six months to September 30. But the transporters will have to prove by March 31 their intent by showing orders for new buses or for natural gas conversion kits.
The Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) said Delhi's public transport system would be unable to make the change in the time allowed.
"It's a stupendous task. We don't really know how it (the order) can be implemented... whether we have the system, the suppliers, distributors (for compressed natural gas)," TERI Director R.K. Pachauri told a news conference.
Transport operators have said they will be unable to comply with the court order and local authorities say the city of 13 million will face a crippling shortage of public transport from April 1 as a result.
FORCED OFF ROADS
Some 15,000 taxis, 50,000 three-wheelers and 5,000 buses that run on diesel or petrol are expected to be forced off the roads. Authorities say Delhi would be left with 7,000 buses, 1,500 taxis and 10,000 three-wheelers which use CNG or can make the switch by the September 30 deadline.
Commuters will get a taste of the looming chaos on Thursday when some 15,000 taxis and 50,000 three-wheelers belonging to the Federation of Transport Unions have vowed to go on strike to protest against the court order.
Last year, the Supreme Court ignored violent street protests and ordered hundreds of polluting factories in the capital to relocate in its quest to cut pollution in Delhi, one of the world's dirtiest cities.
The institute said there were other clean fuel choices the court could examine. "It is still not too late for the court to look at other options that are available," he said.
TERI's Pachauri suggested bus owners be given a choice of switching to a less polluting form of diesel called ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD) which is cleaner and cheaper than CNG.
He said shifting to ULSD would be quicker because buses would only need to upgrade their engines and not have to buy new CNG engines. ULSD is not produced in India but Pachauri said it could be easily imported.
