The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has revealed that India will be adopting BS V emission norms and not skip the same to implement BS VI norms directly, clearing much of the confusion surrounding the issue.
There has been a lot of confusion surrounding the adoption of emission norms in India for a very long time. Many people contemplated that the BS V emission norms will be skipped and BS VI emission norms will be adopted directly owing to alarming air pollution levels across the country. However, the government today has cleared all doubts by saying that the BS V norms will be adopted before BS VI and the whole process will take place in a phased manner. BS V will be implemented by 2019, while BS VI norms will come into affect from 2023 onwards.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has taken the update with utmost pleasure, stating that this is the most logical way of going about and also mentioning that the move will be beneficial for all stakeholders of the industry. However, changing from BS IV to BS V is not going to be as easy as it sounds because the automotive industry will have to invest around Rs. 50,000 crores for doing the same. Production of BS V compliant diesel from the existing refineries would also require an investment of around Rs. 60,000 crores.
SIAM has always been pushing the government to not adopt BS VI emission norms directly due to the additional investment that would be required, which by all means would have been a very difficult period for everyone involved in the automotive industry. On a different note, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will soon be getting a new department for addressing the problems and regulations that are related to vehicle transportation because the organisation has not been able to fully concentrate on the same issue with a lot of attention instead being paid towards civil works such as road construction.
