BS-IV grade fuel formally launched on 1st April by petroleum minister

Barely a few days after the Supreme Court ruling to ban the sale and registration of BS-III compliant vehicles, the Government of India has now launched the BS-IV grade fuel in the country, to keep carbon emissions in check. The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, formally launched the new BS-IV grade transportation fuels in Bhubaneswar, Odisha on the 1st of April 2017, setting a goal to usher in BS-VI fuel by April of 2020.

Fuel pumps in most Indian cities and the metros have already been offering BS-IV grade fuel, although, this time the ministry has increased its availability in comparatively smaller towns and cities too, such as Durgapur, Varanasi, Imphal, Madurai, Gorakhpur, Nagpur, Ranchi, Shillong, and Guwahati as well as some others.

The launch of the fuel coincided with the formation day of the state, Utkal Divas, being celebrated in Odisha. Minister Pradhan commented on the event saying that “from today India will have ‘Only BS-IV’ fuels.” “Even though India is not a major polluting country, we shall stand by Hon’ble Prime Minister’s commitment at COP-21 in Paris that India will substantially reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gas emissions in the coming year,” said the Minister. He then added, “Now the next step is to usher in BS-VI fuels, which are expected to reach India by 1st April 2020, to be at par with global standards.”

Based on recent reports, the oil marketing companies, OMCs, have had to incur a massive expense of Rs 90,000 crore because of the repeated upgradation of fuel in India, in a phase wise manner. Dharmendra Pradhan also acknowledged the efforts of the OMCs in setting up new refining infrastructure and logistics in record time, to be able to hit the deadline for the launch of the new BS-IV grade fuels across the nation.