To deal with the Supreme Court’s ban on registration of large diesel vehicles in Delhi, the luxury carmaker – Mercedes-Benz – is now contemplating environment friendly bio-diesel fuel as an option. The company has proposed a shift to bio-diesel for its diesel cars, buses and other vehicles. In December 2015, the Supreme Court had enforced the ban on the registration of 2000cc or above diesel vehicles in the National Capital Region.
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Road Transport and Highways Minister, Nitin Gadkari said: “Mercedes has given me a letter that they can use 100% bio-diesel in their cars and buses. Mercedes India chief has told me that the standards which we have prescribed for bio-diesel can be easily used to power their motors”. “We are going to issue the notification in this regard soon. I am already in talks with petroleum ministry on how to make bio-diesel available at petrol pumps”, he added further.
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According to government’s latest draft notification on bi-diesel, the new vehicles that are powered by a compression ignition engine, and compatible to run on diesel or bi-diesel mixture up to 100% bio-diesel will be type approved as per the existing diesel emission standards. Though, the road transport and highway ministry is yet to announce final notification on 100% use of bio-diesel.
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Besides Mercedes-Benz, major automobile and construction equipment companies including JCB have shown their interest for bio-diesel. This will certainly be the major step towards reducing high pollution levels, and our dependence on imported crude fuel. While the National Biofuels Policy proposed a 20% ratio for biodiesel and ethanol by 2017, the ministry permitted 100% bio-diesel for vehicles.
