Friday, December 14, 2007

Are Diesel Vehicles facing a Ban in the Capital?

....If one goes goes by the statement made by Delhi Environment secretary J K Dadoo at roundtable of the automotive industry and civil society,
"We will come down with a strong hand and ban registration of diesel
vehicles in Delhi if everything else fails,"

My View:

  • The sale of Diesel vehicles are surging at the rate of 40-50% in Indian market. With many auto makers lined up for India launch, this move could well be a bomb-shell for their future plans.
  • Ofcourse the level of pollution is increasing at an alarming rate, which has to be met with stringent emission norms, but banning the diesel vehicles, even private vehicles is altogether a different proposition.
  • It is a known fact that public transport buses and some heavy vehicles run on polluted or rather suspect quality of diesel and coupled with poor maintenance is one of the main reason for increase in air pollution. Whereas, the private cars are maintained properly and thus using the same yard stick for all the categories of diesel vehicles is a mypoic view of policy making.
  • Nobody can stop a Delhi resident from buying and registering the car outside Delhi and bring it to Delhi

Stringent norms and tougher implementation are the requirement of the day and not a ban.

Counter View:

  • Diesel is one of the most highly subsidised fuel next to LPG, and all those subsidies can be put into better use than using it to polluting the city.
  • Let diesel be only as fuel for tractors and other agriculture machineries/equipments, rather as fuel for high-end private cars

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