Many Indian cities are among the most polluted in the world. As many as 39 Indian cities had featured on IQAir’s annual list of the world’s 50 most polluted cities last year. Against this backdrop, the latest reports indicate that the government is considering a complete ban on diesel-powered cars. Petroleum Ministry’s Energy Transition Advisory Committee in its recent report has suggested that diesel-powered four-wheelers should be phased out by 2027 in all cities with a million-plus population, reported ET Auto.
The Energy Transition Advisory Committee has also called for doubling the share of grid power in the national energy basket to 40 per cent by 2035.
The advisory committee has further recommended the government should set up a high-powered group of ministers supervising petroleum, coal, power and renewables. The committee believes that this setup would be able to coordinate with all the stakeholders and facilitate the transition towards green alternative fuels.
It is widely believed that the overall direction for surface transport will be towards electric vehicles in the future.
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The committee said if new registrations of delivery vehicles are opened for only EVs only till 2024, then 75 per cent of such vehicles can be electric in all million-plus cities in the next 10 years.
This advisory committee is headed by former petroleum secretary Tarun Kapoor. Executives from state-run oil companies and an oil ministry official serve as the committee’s members. Former ONGC chairman Subhash Kumar has also played a crucial role in the committee.
It is worth noting that the latest IQAir World Air Quality Report says that India was the world’s eighth most polluted country last year. India recorded PM 2.5 levels of 53.3 micrograms/cubic metre, which is over 10 times the World Health Organisation’s safe limit.
The central government is promoting the use of clean alternative fuels such as bio-CNG methanol, electricity, bio-diesel, LNG, H-CNG, and hydrogen fuel cells to tackle the worsening air pollution in the country.
In the bid, Delhi Government imposed a temporary ban on plying of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel four-wheelers in the national capital in January. This move was recommended by the sub-committee on the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) and came under the Stage III of the anti-pollution plan.
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