Month-long awareness on fuel conservation begins

Vijayawada: A month-long ‘Saksham 2019’ aimed at awareness of conservation of fuels was inaugurated by A the executive director of APSRTC A Ramakrishna at Tummallapalli Kalakshetram here on Thursday.

He administered the Conservation Pledge to the participants at the inaugural meet. Officials from HPC, IOC, BPC and GAIL, their stakeholders and about 430 school children participated in the programme.

Addressing the gathering, Ramakrishna stressed on the need to conserve petroleum products keeping in view the  increase in demand due to an increase in the number of vehicles and the growing economy of the country.

He said that APSRTC gave top priority for the efficient usage of fuels as it has a fleet of about 12,000 vehicles and 33 percent of expenditure is spent by the corporation towards purchase of diesel. 

He also said that APSRTC was trying alternate fuels with the introduction of bio-diesel. It was proposed to have 20 electric vehicles on the Tirumala-Tirupathi route.

State-level coordinator for oil industry GKKV Umashankar said that in order to drive home the message of oil conservation, students were chosen as ambassadors and various competitions would be held across the State in educational institutions. 

Saksham will be having people-centric activities for the efficient usage of fuels and thereby encourage behavioral change. 

The measures suggested include covering short distances by walk, usage of bicycles, pooling of vehicles, use of public transport, etc, he said.