BS-VI (Euro-VI) fuel

The Central government has told the Supreme Court that the BS-VI (Euro-VI) fuel will be made available by April 1, 2019, in 17 of the 23 districts in the National Capital Region.  The government told a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that BS-VI (Euro-VI) fuel will also be made available in Agra in Uttar Pradesh on or before April 1, 2019. 

Additional Solicitor General ANS Nadkarni, representing the government, told the bench that it would not be possible to change the pricing structure of diesel since the maximum basic excise duty was already being levied on the fuel. As far as other 12 metropolitan cities are concerned, it is not possible to make BS-VI (Euro-VI) fuel available there by April 1, 2019, but all attempts would be made to make it available in these areas by April 1, 2020, he said. 

Indian regulations for four-wheeled vehicles follow European Union regulatory pathways. The implementation of progressive standards in India has generally lagged behind equivalent EU standards by about 5 years in major cities and 10 years nationwide. In general, standards for two- and three-wheeled vehicles have been developed independently, and do not follow the European model. Currently, emission standards for motor vehicles in India are at BS III or BS IV levels. Nationwide implementation of BS IV standards for new vehicles is expected beginning in April 2017, https://www.theicct.org. 

The proposed BS VI standards are far-reaching in scope and incorporate substantial changes to existing Bharat Stage III and IV emission standards. Of particular note is the tightening of particulate matter (PM) mass emission limits and the introduction of particle number (PN) limits for light- and heavy-duty vehicles (LDV, HDV) fitted with gasoline direct injection (GDI) and compression ignition (CI), or diesel, engines. 

As evidenced by the adoption of nominally equivalent PM and PN standards in Europe, this step will likely lead to the near-universal application of diesel particulate filters (DPF) to control PM emissions from new diesel LDVs and HDVs. A second important component of the BS VI standards is the expansion of type approval and in-service conformity test requirements for LDVs and HDVs, adds www.theicct.org.