Oil companies have to invest Rs 15,000 crore for Bharat Stage (BS)-IV compliance
Oil majors need to invest Rs 15k cr to shift to BS-IV
Oil majors have to invest around Rs 15,000 crore to comply with Bharat Stage (BS)-IV fuel norms at their refineries, which would help the automobile industry address emission concerns. According to a senior industry representative, by 2015, around 50 cities would come under the BS-IV norms. However, the adoption of the new norms by the existing fleets would be a challenge.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Automotive Conference, organised by SAEINDIA, R K Malhotra, director (research and development), IndianOil, said oil companies had invested nearly Rs 30,000 crore in the last few years at their refineries to manufacture fuel that complied with BS-IV norms, instead of BS-III. An additional investment of Rs 10,000-15,000 crore was needed to achieve the government's directive of covering 50 cities by 2015. Currently, 16 major cities have been brought under the latest emission norms.
Moving to BS-IV alone would not reduce pollution. The complete benefits of BS IV emission norms would be realised only if old vehicles are phased out, Malhotra said. “Only a small part of total particulate emission (sulphur) would come down. The major impact on old vehicles can be felt only if they have retrofit engines and after-treatment devices,” he said.
Courtesy:Business Standard, New Delhi, October 09, 2011
