CHANDIGARH: Green revolution is about to get a new meaning in Haryana as the state readies to launch a major project to control vehicular pollution. As a priority, the state plans to phase out petrol and diesel-run autorickshaws, which are the biggest source of vehicular pollution, and to achieve this Haryana Pollution Control Board (HPCB) is planning to provide financial assistance to introduce battery-operated autorickshaws in its six cities. Besides, autorickshaw owners in Gurgaon and Faridabad will be offered more than 33% subsidy for CNG conversion.
Stating that the government was serious about tackling the problem, member secretary of the board, V Umashankar said both the plans were ready for execution. "Conversion of any autorickshaw into a CNG-operated one costs around Rs 15,000 and we are planning to offer financial aid of Rs 5,000 for the purpose," he said. It may be mentioned that after Delhi moved to CNG, large number of petrol and diesel-run autorickshaws from the capital were sold in adjoining parts of Haryana, especially Gurgaon and Faridabad.
In the other six towns, HPCB will initially provide around 85% financial help to 150 autorickshaw owners volunteering to run electric autorickshaws. The board will chose six cities out of the initially selected eight ^ Ambala, Yamunanagar, Hisar, Panipat, Sonepat, Rohtak, Jind and Bhiwani.
The cost of such electric autos is around Rs 3 lakh, which is comparatively quite high and therefore it is difficult to convince auto owners to invest in them. But, defending the decision to introduce such vehicles, Yamunanagar DC Amit Aggarwal, who was the one who proposed the idea, said, "These autorickshaws are wonderful as they are free of noise and air pollution and their running cost is also around Rs 2 to 4 per km."
