From ddevarshi@hotmail.com Tue Jun 26 16:29:44 2001 Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 17:06:09 +0530 From: Dhirendra DevarshiTo: Natural History of South Asia - General discussion and research Subject: LPG legal status [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte4_3.htm Gasping For Gas by: Lopamudra Banerjee In the absence of a government policy on the use of liquefied petroleum gas for automobiles, the illegal market is flourishing where safety norms are non-existent. After compressed natural gas (cng), liquefied petroleum gas (lpg) seems to be the most favoured fuel in India for those who want to switch over to an environmentally-cleaner option. While cng has been introduced as clean automotive fuel in Delhi following the Supreme Court order of July 28, 1998, the Union government is yet to formulate a policy to allow lpg for automotive use. Today, lpg seems to be a better option in cities where the infrastructure for the distribution lpg is already in place. This is because the supply of cng is limited to its pipeline network and therefore only a few cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and a few cities of Gujarat stand to benefit. But bottling and distribution units for lpg can be found in almost every state in the country. The biggest benefit of moving to gaseous fuel options is the substantial reduction in particulate matter that gets virtually eliminated when compared to diesel. Legislative guidelines to allow lpg for automotive use have been on the anvil for a long time. But the government seems to be dragging its feet because of the conflicting needs of meeting both cooking and transport demands at the same time. Though exact estimates are not available, officials of the ministry of petroleum and natural gas (mpng) claim that the current registered demand for cooking lpg in Indian cities can be met fully by the year 2001. Therefore, supplying lpg for automotive use should not be a problem, they say. But Rajeev Sharma, managing director, Indraprastha Gas Limited, warns that if the demand for cooking lpg escalates in future and if rural areas are also brought within the ambit of cooking gas supply, then there will be a huge shortfall. Meanwhile, market pressure to allow lpg for automotive use is building up. Several manufacturers have started planning a number of products based on lpg and vendors have set up shops to sell lpg conversion kits. Even the Karnataka high court had ordered that all autorickshaws in the state must run only on lpg by January 2000. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (bpcl) has set up a lpg dispensing/filling station at Vasant Vihar in Delhi. Multinationals are also joining the bandwagon and are planning to set up a lpg distribution network. There is more to follow. Ahemdabad-based Rutu Auto Gas Private Ltd, is one of the many companies trying to enter the lpg conversion market. It has already converted a wide range of vehicles including a three-wheeler to lpg. "We have successfully converted many models of passenger cars to lpg. These cars have already been tested by the Automotive Research Association of India (arai) for safety and emissions. As soon as the government allows lpg vehicles on road, we will start with conversions," says Manish Dave, marketing manager of the company. Many automobile manufacturers have also developed lpg versions of their vehicles, which include the Ford's Ikon, and the two-wheeler giant tvs Suzuki. Arun Sekri, senior manager, bpcl, claims that his company can supply auto lpg as soon as the government allows it. While the government sits tight on the amendment of rules, automobile mechanics have started retrofitting passenger cars with lpg conversion kits to run vehicles on cooking grade lpg, throwing all concerns for safety norms to the wind. In Kerala, there are more than 100,000 vehicles that are reportedly running on lpg, despite section 252 of the Kerala Motor Vehicles Act, which makes it illegal. In Calcutta, there are more than 300 cars reported to be running on lpg and in Delhi and Mumbai the numbers are estimated to be in thousands. Down To Earth investigated this illegal conversion market in Delhi and found that these conversions were being done mainly by road-side car mechanics. Manmohan Sharma of Reliable Automobiles is one such mechanic who uses imported kits for these conversions. They are priced between Rs 7,000 and Rs 13,000, and for dilapidated vehicles the cost is Rs 15,000. Raza Abbas of Sara Lee Gas claims that at least one conversion is performed every day in all the five branches he owns. Both Sharma and Abbas do not have any technical expertise and rely only on their experience of repairing automobiles to execute these conversions. Meanwhile, the government has no clue as to how to deal with this rampant illegal use of cooking lpg. Alok Swaroop, secretary, state transport authority, says that there is a serious anomaly in section 52 of the cmva, because of which he is unable to take action against these offenders. This act states that "...modification of the engine, or any part thereof, of a vehicle for facilitating its operation by a different type of fuel or source of energy including battery, compressed natural gas, solar power, or any other fuel source of energy other than liquid petroleum gas shall be treated as an alteration." This can be interpreted to mean that vehicles converted to run on lpg are an exception and do not need the approval of any authorised agency. Clearly, the Union government needs to remove the legal snags and put in place the safety and emission norms for lpg vehicles for the maximum environment benefit and ensure its safe use.