The National Green Tribunal (NGT) told all public sector oil companies to stop using Bharat Stage-I and Bharat Stage-II vehicles for transporting petrol or petroleum products in the NCR. The tribunal bench ordered Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum to take these vehicles off the roads to control air pollution. The tribunal chairperson, Swatanter Kumar, also directed the Special Commissioner of Delhi Police (Traffic) to ensure compliance with the order.
“We direct that all the vehicles of these companies which are working under different contracts in Delhi-NCR and the diesel vehicles which are admittedly more than 10 years old and are BS-I and BS-II compliant shall be withdrawn forthwith from the road. They shall not be plied at all in NCR, Delhi. The Managing Directors of all these companies shall be personally liable for compliance with this order,” it said.
“As far as BS-III compliant vehicles run by contractors under the tenders are concerned, within two weeks from today, the Managing Directors of all the three companies, along with representatives of the contractors shall hold a meeting and submit a complete programme with regard to phasing out of all the diesel vehicles that are more than 10 years old and are BS-III compliant,” he said.
Bharat Stage standards are emission norms that are to be followed by car manufacturers. These are adopted by the government to check the air pollutants released from any internal combustion engine equipment, including motor vehicles. The rules were introduced in India in 2000, based on the European emission norms. Fuel, similarly, has emission standards. While Delhi, along with 38 other cities, has BS IV fuel standards, other parts of the country are still on BS III fuel.
During the hearing, the lawyer for Bharat Petroleum said its contractors own 93 diesel vehicles, which are more than 10 years old and are BS-III compliant. Hindustan Petroleum lawyer said their contractor has 99 diesel vehicles out of which 30 are BS-II compliant and 69 are BS-III compliant. The Indian Oil Corporation lawyer said that contractors working under the company own 640 diesel vehicles out of which two vehicles are BS-I compliant, 622 vehicles are BS-II compliant and 16 vehicles are BS-III compliant.
The direction came while hearing a batch of petitions filed by various contractors seeking registration of new BS-IV compliant diesel vehicles purchased for transport of petrol from company depots to identified petrol pumps in Delhi-NCR.
