A ban was imposed on diesel vehicles with engine capacity more than 2000cc or 2L in Delhi-NCR last year which created quite a stir in the automobile industry. Experts in the field are not satisfied such a harsh action and are demanding a reconsideration.
However, National Green Tribunal(NGT) is planning to extend this ban to 11 other cities as well, including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata. The ban has been held for cities in Kerala, giving a respite to automobile owners as well as distributors.
All in the name of pollution, the impact of diesel car ban in Delhi-NCR has led to a production loss of 11,000 vehicles in last 6 months, and nearly 5,000 jobs in the industry. If this ban extends to other parts of the country, an approximate loss of 50,000 jobs would be inevitable.
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), condemns the ban and has even said that there is no relation between the size of the vehicle’s engine and emissions. It is the difference in engine technologies that determine the amount of pollutants emitted.
There have been a couple of consequences from this ban – firstly the existing stock at the dealerships had to be shipped to non-NCR regions for sale. This also meant that companies like Toyota which have extremely popular cars like Innova and Fortuner had to suffer in sales within the city.
Secondly, the companies have started increasing the stock of petrol cars and petrol counterparts of these large vehicles. A surge in petrol consumption was also noticed in the city, which ultimately tilted the balance of petrol and diesel requirements in Delhi-NCR.
Currently, in India Bharat Stage IV norms are followed, which some of these large diesel engine vehicles have already met the requirement for. It does not make sense to ban these vehicles solely on the basis of their engine size, which does not necessarily mean higher emissions. It is like picking a small sample from a species, identifying a characteristic and labeling the rest of the species the same.
Such a ban should not be spread to other parts of the country blindly, for it will shake the diesel industry in India and render a lot of automobile workers jobless. We hope the Government gives thought to NGT’s plea and takes a neutral decision.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this…Do you think Large Diesel engine vehicles be banned in other cities as well?
Source: BS
Good Move. But Government should also ban all those trucks emitting black smoke. First ban those commercial vehicles before banning the cars. That will make a lot more sense.
Good! Next they need to ban sales of new petrol cars without a special permit. Only electric cars and shut down all coal plants. Then maybe we can stop climate change before all coastal cities are washed away.