India is moving forward on the development and use of vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in yet another effort to curb rising levels of air pollution in its cities.
The government plans to use CNG and LNG as an alternative to both diesel and petrol until automakers develop and make available efficient and affordable electric vehicles, according to the minutes of a meeting of a committee of secretaries in January, which was also attended by officials from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The department of industrial planning and promotion (DIPP) is working on ways to expedite approvals needed from the Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation (PESO) to set up new CNG and LNG fueling stations. The government has initiated talks with commercial vehicle makers, through GAIL (India) Ltd, the country’s largest gas distributor, to set the framework for the development these clean vehicles.
Rajiv Kumar Mathur, executive director, corporate affairs and risk management, GAIL (India), said talks are on with commercial vehicle makers to encourage them to build facilities for LNG-based trucks and buses.
“The idea is to demonstrate that LNG-based vehicles are cost-effective and beneficial for anyone who buys them. So, we are trying to interest the manufacturers by saying that, if you manufacture them, we would buy them from you to tell the world that there is something that is more efficient," he said.
Petronet LNG Ltd, India’s largest importer of liquid gas, too has plans to set up an LNG eco-structure—infrastructure where there are gas-filling stations, service stations, and storage.
Creating the eco-structure will need an investment of around USD 2.1 billion over the next decade. Petronet LNG, for instance, has identified 4,000km of highways (Delhi-Mumbai-Bengaluru-Chennai) where it would initially set up around 20 LNG fueling stations. Petronet last year roped in Gujarat to run 20 state buses and Kerala State Road Transport Corporation to run 10 of their buses on LNG.
Despite some voices from multilateral financing bodies expressing their preference for EVs, these are not readily available, affordable or efficient, especially where there are already power distribution deficiencies. For this reason, companies such as Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and Hyundai Motor India Ltd are focusing on CNG vehicles and have been lobbying with the government to promote Natural Gas powered mobility.
Source: Mint