Your SUV is polluting Delhi’s air: report
11 Dec 2012 7:15 AM IST
Delhiites’ love for Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) is adding to pollution in the air. The consumption of diesel has registered 15 percent surge in the city. According to experts around 60 percent of the total vehicles sold in Delhi are diesel propelled among which SUVs are majority.
‘Apart from status symbol, SUVs are high in demand as cabs in corporate offices and call centers, as they accommodate more people and are comfortable,’ said Mahesh Shehrawat, a Gurgaon based transporter. On an average, over 1,000 vehicles are added to the city roads every day. The latest report of Delhi government has revealed that the consumption of diesel in the city has increased by 15 per cent while that of petrol gone down by nearly 1.5 per cent in 2011-12 compared to the year before, reflecting a growing preference for diesel cars.
As per the statistics, consumption of diesel in the city was 9.34 lakh metric tonnes in 2011-12 as against 8.11 lakh metric tonnes in 2010-11. The increase of around 1.33 lakh metric tonnes of diesel in 2011-12 came when 5.05 lakh new vehicles were added to the city roads in the same period, taking the total to 74.38 lakh from 69.32 lakh in 2010-11.
However, consumption of petrol went down to 8.13 lakh tonnes in 2011-12 as against 8.25 lakh tonnes in the year before which is a decline of 1.45 per cent. As per the figures, the consumption of CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) increased by just around 9 per cent in 2011-12 as compared to its consumption in 2010-11. The city consumed a total of 6.49 lakh metric tonnes of CNG in 2011-12 as against 5.96 lakh metric tonnes in the previous year. In 2009-10, 5 lakh metric tonnes of CNG was consumed.
‘The price of CNG was increased many times in recent years and is now close to diesel. Furthermore, the CNG run vehicles require more maintenance, fetch less fair and are in less demand. The government must decrease the price of CNG to promote CNG run vehicles in the city to make the air of Delhi less pollutant which was the main objective of the Supreme Court for making CNG compulsory,’ said Rajender Soni, general secretary of Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union.
‘Its an established fact that diesel vehicles are more polluting than petrol vehicles. The concentration of nitron oxides in smoke of diesel vehicles is around 3-4 times higher. Amount of particulate matter in petrol smoke in negligible which is 7.5 times higher than diesel vehicles like SUVs,’ said Vivek Chattopadhyaya, Dy Project Manager, Air Pollution Control, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). ‘The smoke emitting from SUVs has cancer causing carcinogenic materials which is akin to tobacco smoking,’ added Chattopadhyaya.
‘The government must declare a roadmap for implementation of Euro-VI emission to control pollution in the city and restrict or demoralise diesel vehicles either all the measures taken to control pollution would be nullified,’ demanded Chattopadhyaya. Delhi presently follows Bharat Stage-IV which is parallel to Euro-IV emission standard.
‘Apart from status symbol, SUVs are high in demand as cabs in corporate offices and call centers, as they accommodate more people and are comfortable,’ said Mahesh Shehrawat, a Gurgaon based transporter. On an average, over 1,000 vehicles are added to the city roads every day. The latest report of Delhi government has revealed that the consumption of diesel in the city has increased by 15 per cent while that of petrol gone down by nearly 1.5 per cent in 2011-12 compared to the year before, reflecting a growing preference for diesel cars.
As per the statistics, consumption of diesel in the city was 9.34 lakh metric tonnes in 2011-12 as against 8.11 lakh metric tonnes in 2010-11. The increase of around 1.33 lakh metric tonnes of diesel in 2011-12 came when 5.05 lakh new vehicles were added to the city roads in the same period, taking the total to 74.38 lakh from 69.32 lakh in 2010-11.
However, consumption of petrol went down to 8.13 lakh tonnes in 2011-12 as against 8.25 lakh tonnes in the year before which is a decline of 1.45 per cent. As per the figures, the consumption of CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) increased by just around 9 per cent in 2011-12 as compared to its consumption in 2010-11. The city consumed a total of 6.49 lakh metric tonnes of CNG in 2011-12 as against 5.96 lakh metric tonnes in the previous year. In 2009-10, 5 lakh metric tonnes of CNG was consumed.
‘The price of CNG was increased many times in recent years and is now close to diesel. Furthermore, the CNG run vehicles require more maintenance, fetch less fair and are in less demand. The government must decrease the price of CNG to promote CNG run vehicles in the city to make the air of Delhi less pollutant which was the main objective of the Supreme Court for making CNG compulsory,’ said Rajender Soni, general secretary of Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union.
‘Its an established fact that diesel vehicles are more polluting than petrol vehicles. The concentration of nitron oxides in smoke of diesel vehicles is around 3-4 times higher. Amount of particulate matter in petrol smoke in negligible which is 7.5 times higher than diesel vehicles like SUVs,’ said Vivek Chattopadhyaya, Dy Project Manager, Air Pollution Control, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). ‘The smoke emitting from SUVs has cancer causing carcinogenic materials which is akin to tobacco smoking,’ added Chattopadhyaya.
‘The government must declare a roadmap for implementation of Euro-VI emission to control pollution in the city and restrict or demoralise diesel vehicles either all the measures taken to control pollution would be nullified,’ demanded Chattopadhyaya. Delhi presently follows Bharat Stage-IV which is parallel to Euro-IV emission standard.
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