BS-VI Fuel Available From April 1, 2020; Govt Claims Air Pollution Will Reduce By 80%, Spends Rs 60,000 Crore

The wait is finally over. There has at least been a declaration. The Supreme Court of India, last year on October 24 ruled out that there shall be no BS-IV vehicle selling anywhere in the country with effect from April 1, 2020. It had declared BS-VI to take its place.

Finally, the Union Environment Minister, Prakash Javadekar said that the Bharat Stage, BS-VI fuel will be made available in the country from April 1 next year.

BS-VI Fuel and its Magnanimous Usefulness

The pollution level is rising exponentially in the country and this is showing no signs of relief. To cumber vehicular pollution problem, which is becoming very hard these days with the increasing population, the government decided to come up with BS-VI fuel starting from next year, instead of the present BS-VI fuels used in vehicles.

The BS-VI fuel will be made available from April 1 in the country. The BS-VI compliant vehicles will also be made available from next year. Just recently, on the occasion of Vijayadashami, Javadekar gave out his plans with the government to curb pollution, while participating in a tree plantation event at the Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) in Jaipur.

Earlier, Javadekar had informed the Rajya Sabha that fuel conforming to stringent BS-VI emission norms was introduced in the national capital to reduce air pollution.

In Jaipur, he said the country’s forest area has increased by 15,000 sq km as a result of efforts made in the direction of environment protection and stressed the need to make further efforts to increase the forest cover to 33% of the total geographical area in the country.

Funds and More

As per the government, this gradual shift towards BS-VI compliant vehicles is bound to reduce air pollution by 80-90%. The minister further informed that in a bid to reduce pollution under the National Clean Air Campaign, the government had chalked out plans for about 122 cities.

The funds have also been issued by the Central government. Government has also been monitoring companies that are contributing immensely to pollution levels in the country. An investment of Rs. 60,000 crore has been made for this.

The major difference between the existing BS-IV and forthcoming BS-VI norm is the presence of sulphur in the fuel. These emission standards were set by the government to keep a check on the pollutant levels emitted by vehicles that use combustion engines.