‘Look at data and do the calculation,’ car companies tells NGT

Hitting out against the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order to ban new diesel vehicles in the Capital, automobile manufacturers on Saturday asked the NGT to consider all facts and data to take a holistic view to control pollution. The banning of old vehicles is a welcome step in order to improve air quality in the capital but banning of new vehicles which comply with the latest emission norms will be counter-productive, Mahindra & Mahindra Executive Director Pawan Goenka said in a conference call.

He said that the NGT should “look at data and do the calculation”. “A still to be published report of IIT-Kanpur says that passenger vehicles contribute 4 per cent of particulate matter in Delhi out of which about 85 per cent is contributed by vehicles which are vehicles prior to BSIV. So BSIV vehicles are contributing only 0.5 per cent to the total PM2.5 load in Delhi,” Goenka said.

“Is that the reason to ban new BS IV vehicles?” he asked. While diesel vehicles emit more particulate matters, CNG-propelled automobiles emit more NOx and petrol vehicles have more carbon dioxide emissions, he said. In order to improve the air quality, it is “unfair to focus only on one fuel” and “why not ban all?”

Expressing similar views, SIAM Director General Vishnu Mathur said: “The auto industry is the soft target. In the past several years whatever courts have asked us to do, we have done that. There won’t be any visible results if we don’t come up with a holistic plan.”

He questioned why the focus is only on cars as “there are buses and trucks and old vehicles which need to be taken off the roads”. “There is a need for fleet modernisation policy. We need to work on a BS norms-led rationale to look into this matter,” Mathur said.

Hyundai Motor India Senior Vice-President (Marketing and Sales) Rakesh Srivastava said, “The auto industry has already made plans to invest in diesel technology as per BSV emission norms to be implemented by 2019 and such decisions can negatively impact the industry.” the respective Government authorities should give a serious view to create a robust road map for the automobile industry for the future, he added. 

Reacting to the NGT order, Price Waterhouse Partner Abdul Majeed said that the steps which one takes should be sustainable covering all industries including automotive. “In India, awareness is also one of the weak areas when it becomes to emission and here too all stakeholders need to work together,” he added. On Friday NGT had ordered that diesel-run vehicles will not be registered in Delhi and there will be no renewal of registration of such vehicles that are more than 10-year-old.