India Environment Portal Knowledge for change

About us Contact us
downtoearth-subscribe

Browse by subjects

No conversion!

No conversion! A FULL bench of the Supreme Court has, on February 14, directed the motor vehicle authorities to "deal with" those car owners in the four metros (Mumbai, Delhi, Madras and Calcutta) who have removed or in any manner tampered with the catalytic converters (cc) fitted to their vehicles.

The bench has also directed that government vehicles be converted so as to use compressed natural gas instead of petrol as the requisite kit for conversion was now available, thereby "setting an example" before the Court decides to direct users of old vehicles to do the same.

At the same time, the- authorities find themselves at a loss, as the Central Motor Vehicles Rules (CMVR) do not specifically enable them to prosecute car, owners who actually indulge in the unlawful activity. For instance@ the court order has upset the priorities of the already grossly understaffed road transport office here, which is now being asked to target mere 5.21 per cent of Delhi's vehicles which are not the real sources of vehicular pollution.

This, judgement was passed on a public interest hugation filed, by the Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action. The bench, comprising Chief Justice A M Ahmadi, Justice Sujata V Manohar and Justice G Venkataswami, also directed the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas to issue a warning to the effect to all car owners within two weeks of the date of judgement.

"In practice, prosecution will pose a tot of problems," says Kiran Dhingra, commissioner (transport) of the state transport authority (STA), when contacted by Down To Earth. "We have 56 enforcement staff for over 25 lakh vehicles in Delhi. And as pollution from new vehicles is well within the limits, they are not a priority," she states.

@ She adds that the CMVR did not refer to alterations carried out by the car owner/driver, but only to the car manufacturer. Under such circumstances, the sTA cannot take erring own@rs/drivers to task.

The order follows the storm raised by the media over incidents of 'converting' cars fitted with ccs, using unleaded petrol (ULF), into cars using leaded petrol. Theapparent reason was,the lack of availability of ULP.

A simple operation, 'conversion' involves 'bypassing' the cc or removing it altogdther. Most car mechanics had mastered this simple job, charging between Rs 250-500 for this half-hour job. While,there were -reports that,the practice was a widespread: one no formal studies had been carried out.

There has been' no information on the issue 'right from the onset. While media reports had one believing that the removal of the ccs was rampant, the supply-demand figures Of UU had presented quite a diffirent picture.

According to sources at the oil coordinating committee (which (monitors the supply .and demand for ULP), the amount Of ULF supplied in Delhi was based on the assumption that each of the vehicles fitted with ccs would use 80 litres Of ULF in a month. till end-October 1995, the four oil companies had supplied 2,685 kl to 105 petrol bunks (of the 264 bunks in Delhi) for the 31,637 petrol driven four- wheelers registered between, April 1 and October 31, 1995.

Thus, as per the estimates for the 31,637 petrol-driven four-wheelers, the oil companies. would need to supply 2,530.96 k1 of uLP in Delhi, leaving an excess, of 154.04 kl. This excess ULF would act as an indicator which would seem to go against the belief that there exists a rampant conversion from the usage of ULP by bypassing the cc.

Related Content