India's Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, has commissioned the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited's Euro-IV compliant oil refinery as part of the national target to implement Euro IV-compliant fuel in 13 major cities from April and upgrade the rest of the country’s fuel standards to Euro-III from Euro-II specifications. By bringing in tighter fuel criteria to improve air quality, India expects to 'leapfrog' China, which started using a Euro III-like norm for petrol from 1 january with a Euro III diesel equivalent set to become a national mandate from June 2011.
“The Prime Minister and the government of India is committed to introducing mandatory fuel efficiency standards measured in terms of ‘kmpl’, which is kilometres per litre, or in terms of CO2 emission which is what the European countries are looking towards,” Ramesh said, as quoted by ANI.
He added that a Comprehensive Environmental Assessment had been carried out throughout the country which found that 88 industrial clusters were found critically polluted.
"In a place like Bhatinda where there is a critically polluted industrial cluster, the number of cancer patients is a very high. Where the environment is polluted beyond a certain level, it has caused health hazards for the inhabitants of the area. Although today in India, transport emission forms 7-8% of the Green House Gases but keeping in view the rapid growth in transport sector, there is urgent need to provide clean fuel at affordable price, he said.
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