To combat air-pollution, ultra-clean petrol, diesel in Delhi from Sunday

In a bid to curb the alarming level of air pollution, ultra-clean Euro-VI grade petrol and diesel will be supplied in the national capital from April 1.

“State-owned oil firms will begin supplying the BS-VI petrol and diesel (equivalent to fuel meeting Euro-VI emission norm) at all their 391 petrol pumps in the national capital territory (NCT) from tomorrow (Sunday),” said Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Director (Refineries) B V Rama Gopal.

Delhi will the first Indian city to advance from Euro-IV grade fuel to Euro-VI. The ultra-clean petrol, diesel will be available at the same price without any additional cost.

"Rest assured we don't have plans of passing on the cost to consumers. There are no plans to recover (the cost) from customers immediately," Gopal said.

However, oil companies have invested heavily to produce ultra-clean petrol, diesel and costing wise, the BS-VI grade fuel should cost around 50 paisa per litre more, he said.

A mechanism of recovering the cost when the whole country shifts to Euro-VI grade fuel would be worked out, the IOC director said.

Apart from Delhi, 17 other major cities, including Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and national capital region like Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad and Ghaziabad will switch to Euro-VI grade fuel from January 1, 2019. Rest of the country will follow suit from April 2020.

After switching to the Euro-VI fuel, particulate emission in Delhi would be reduced by 10-20 per cent but for full benefits, the vehicles too need to have Euro-VI engines.

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“BS-VI petrol and diesel supplies from tomorrow give comfort to automobiles manufacturers that supplies of cleaner fuel would not be a problem,” the official said.

IOC, the nation’s biggest oil firm controlling roughly half of retail fuel market, will source the BS-VI fuel to meet Delhi’s requirement from its Mathura and Panipat refineries, while Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) will do so from its joint venture refinery at Bhatinda. Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) will supply the fuel from its Bina refinery.

According to IOC, for petrol engines, one of the most critical specifications is Research Octane No. (RON), which has improved from 88 in BS-II to 91. It is at par with regular 91 octane gasoline (petrol) required for Euro VI emission norms.

Sulphur specification for petrol and diesel will be reduced 50 times from a level of 500 ppm for BS-II fuel to 10 ppm in BS-VI.

(With inputs from agencies)