Control of Vehicular Pollution

Of many policy interventions undertaken during the 25 years of Air At, in last 10 years, vehicular sector interventions have been more prominent. Mass emission standards for new vehicles were first introduced in India in 1991, however stringent emission norms along with fuel quality specifications were laid down much later in 1996. Due to wide scale debate on the issue of urban air pollution from vehicular sources, Supreme Court of India intervened and asked Government of India to specify the plans for vehicle sector air pollution control and formed an Authority, EPCA (Environment Pollution Control Authority).

It led to Ministry of Surface Transport (MoST) in 1999 to notify rules relating to the registration of non-commercial four-wheeled petrol and diesel driven vehicles in the National Capital Region to confirm India-2000 emission standards akin to Euro-I emission standards effective from 01.06.99. These standards were applicable in the entire country for all types of vehicles after 1st April, 2000. Later, Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF), and the MoST also notified more stringent emission standards known as Bharat Stage-II similar to Euro-II emission standards for registration of Motor cars and Four-wheeler Passenger Vehicles with Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) equal or less than 3500 Kg, which should conform to Euro-II emission norms by 01.04.2000 in the National Capital Region. Further Euro IV (Bharat stage-IV) norms will be applicable from April 2010. Figure 2 gives the progression of Bharat norms (EURO equivalent).



Fuel quality specifications were laid down by the Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) for gasoline and diesel for the period 2000–2005 and beyond 2005 for the country. The Ministry of Surface Transport has also constituted a committee, to work out a phased time table, for introduction of fuel with 0.05% sulfur content maximum throughout the country to enable the stipulation of the Bharat-II emission standards for registration of new vehicles throughout the country. Table 1 presents the S reduction programme being implemented in India.

Norms	Year of Implementations
0.5% S-Diesel	1996
0.25% S-Diesel	2000
0.05% S-Diesel	2003
0.035% S-Diesel	2005

Due to large scale 2 stroke vehicles in Indian cities, emission from these vehicles have been very high. One of the reason for higher emission from 2 stroke vehicles was use of poor quality 2T lubricating oil. On 1st April 1999, the specifications for 2T oil became effective. In order to prevent the use of 2T oil in excess of the required quantity, premixed 2T oil dispensers were installed in all gasoline stations (CPCB, 1999). Traffic management measures such as restriction on movement of heavy duty diesel vehicles during peak traffic hours were also enforced.

Fuel quality improvement related policy intervention were implemented phase wise successfully. Lead and Benzene levels were also reduced from very high levels to zero and < 1%, respectively as shown in Table 2 and 3. Lead reduction in gasoline was introduced in April 1995 in the four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Lead was phased out completely in the entire country since February 2000. Benzene has also been reduced from 1996 when there was no specification to less than 1% in the year 2000.

Year	Lead Specification
June 1994	0.15 g/lt – 4 Metro
April 1995	Unleaded- 4 Metro
Jan 1997	Low leaded – country
Jan1999	Unleaded –NCR
Feb 2000	Unleaded - country

Year	Benzene Specification
Before 1996	No specification
April 1996	5%
April 2000	3% in metro cities
Nov. 2000	1% in NCR and Mumbai