In a bid to adopt pro-active strategies to reduce pollution, the government will be leapfrogging from Bharat Stage IV to BS VI emission norms for vehicles by 2020 as per a new draft issued by Indian government and this will implement for all categories of vehicles including two-wheelers and three-wheelers from April 2020 onwards. The new emission norms for two-wheelers will be equivalent to emission standards in Europe.
According to government, NOx emission limit for BS-IV petrol car is 0.08gram/km but for two-wheeler it is 0.39 gram/km and 80% vehicles sold in India are two-wheelers and they emit nearly four times more oxides of nitrogen (NOx) than petrol cars.
Euro VI norms set 0.08gram/km of NOx for diesel vehicles as compared to 0.06gram/ km for petrol one, reducing the gap between vehicles consuming the two types of fuel. The norms for carbon monoxide and particulate matter are similarly tougher for Euro VI compliant vehicles. The comparison between BS and Euro norms is more accurate for four wheelers than motorcycles.
Sources said petroleum ministry has said that since the BS-VI fuel will be made available by the oil manufacturing companies (OMCs) by 2020 the BS-V emission norms can be skipped. It is estimated that that OMCs would need to invest at least Rs 60,000 crore for upgrading their fuel.
