Air quality has become a rising social concern worldwide in the backdrop of soaring air pollution from industries and vehicles. Due to acute problems of traffic jams from the increasing vehicles on the road, developing countries, like India, are facing severe environmental threats. India is on the brink of becoming a major manufacturer of passenger vehicles as its production increased from 3,707,348 units in 2016 to about 3,952,550 units in 2017. The country, despite being the fastest growing economy in the world, has reached an alarming stage in terms of the air pollution as most of its cities are already counted among the cities having the poorest air quality in the world. In a bold move to deal with the vehicular air pollution, the emission standards were imposed in India in 2000.
What are Bharat Stage Emission Standards?
Formulation of the emission standards is the first measure towards tackling the issue of rising air pollution. These standards consist of the legal requirements that govern the release of air pollutants into the atmosphere from the vehicles and equipments running on combustion engines. In India, the Bharat stage Emission Standards got implemented in the year 2000 and were based on European Emission Standards. These standards were instituted by the Government of India and their timeline for implementation are decided by the Central Pollution Control Board under the Ministry of Environment & Forests. Ever since then, India has implemented four emission standards based on the European emission and fuel regulations for four-wheeled light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles and its own emission regulations for two- and three-wheeled vehicles.
BS IV Emission Standards: The current emission standard
BS IV is the fourth emission standard launched by the Indian government to keep a check on the number of air pollutants given out by the vehicles. This emission norm was first implemented in 13 major cities of India i.e. Delhi/NCR, Kolkata, Bangalore, Sholapur, Mumbai, Agra, Chennai, Lucknow Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Surat, Pune, and Kanpur from April 2010. After going through various transitions, BS IV fuel finally covered the entire country in April 2017. Under this norm, a special fuel was designed which contained only 50 parts per million sulfur as compared to the fuel used under BS III. The emissions of nitrogen oxide, particulate matter, and hydrocarbon from BS IV fuel is low. This standard fights against the pollutants like hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon monoxide (CO) emitted by the vehicles on the Indian roads. It pares the emissions of carbon monoxide by nearly 60 percent and, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide by 50 percent by diesel vehicles. In case of petrol vehicles, there was a reduction of 20 percent in CO levels and of 50 percent in Nox and HC levels. Challenges Initially, the rolling out of this standard nationwide faced a lot of challenges. There was a delay owing to the deficiency of BS IV fuel. The fuel producers were required to make hefty investments to supply this fuel all over the country. The cities where this standard was implemented failed in ensuring BS IV fuel powered vehicles. Other challenges included-- Exemption provided to manufacturers of specialty vehicles like taxis.
- Registration of the commercial vehicles not falling under the purview of the BS IV zones.
- Registration of the vehicles powered by BS III fuel on wrong residential addresses.
