In a bid to curb vehicular pollution, the Centre today decided to implement stricter emission norms of Bharat Stage (BS) VI from April 1, 2020, by skipping BS-V altogether.
The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, which was attended by Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar.
“Government has decided to leapfrog from BS-IV to BS-VI directly by April 1, 2020. We have decided to skip BS-VI emission norms. It is a bold decision and a commitment to the environment,” Gadkari told PTI here after the meeting.
All the other ministries have assured cooperation to make the implementation successful, he added.
At the end of December, Pradhan had stated that India would go straight from Euro-IV compliant petrol and diesel to Euro-VI fuel by 2020.
Earlier, a meeting of an inter-ministerial group, including representatives of the Ministries of Road Transport and Highways, Petroleum, Heavy Industries and Environment and Forests, was unable to reach a consensus.
The Road Transport and Highways Ministry was of the view the roll-out of BS-V norms must start from 2019 but the Petroleum Ministry expressed its inability to comply with the deadline.
Earlier in November, a draft notification by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoEF), had advanced dates for implementation of BS-V norms to April 1, 2019, and BS-VI norms to April 1, 2021.
At present, BS-IV auto fuels are being supplied in the whole of northern India covering J&K, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, parts of Rajasthan and western UP. The rest of the country has BS-III grade fuel.