Cleaner air ahead as buses speed switch to green fuel

    Mumbaikars can hope to breathe easier by the end of this year. With buses in the entire metropolitan region speeding up the switch to the cleaner fuel, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), emissions in the next two years are expected to come down by over 1,800 metric tonnes.
    BEST, for instance, has already converted 1,700 buses into CNG out of its total fleet of 5,200 and is planning to convert 1,300 buses to CNG this year. Another 1,000 new CNG buses, mostly under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), will be inducted into the fleet. BEST sources said they have fast-tracked the switch to CNG over the last one year and the drive will gather speed in the next two years. In fact, BEST chairman Uttam Khobragade recently inaugurated CNG stations at the Goregaon and Oshiwara depots.
    Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport will induct 150 CNG buses under JNNURM by this month-end. They will also convert 50 diesel buses to CNG this month. “We will also phase out very old buses to achieve better emission levels,’’ said Navi Mumbai municipal commissioner Vijay Nahata, adding Navi Mumbai recently got nine CNG pumps.
    Thane mayor Ashok Vaiti said, “Thane will not convert its old buses into CNG but buy a new fleet of 200 CNG buses.’’ Thane Municipal Transport acquired 50 buses in the last three weeks alone. It plans to get the remaining buses in the next two months.
    “With the city’s over 2 lakh vehicles, including buses, taxis and autorickshaws, using 9 lakh kg of CNG per day, emission levels have reduced considerably,” said managing director of Mahanagar Gas Ltd (MGL) P K Gupta. Gupta said in 2006, the level of vehicular emission was down by only 500 to 600 metric tonnes but in the last couple of years it has come down by another 300 metric tonnes. He said MGL on its part plans to add 20 CNG stations across the Mumbai metropolitan region every year to ensure a steady supply and woo more vehicles to the fuel.
    However, environmentalist Debi Goenka says though particulate matter came down remarkably, nitrogen oxide (Nox) and carbon monoxide levels are going up. “Certain components of pollution will go down, but others will go up,” he pointed out.
    Environmentalist Sumaira Abdulali said while CNG had taken away the blacksmoke emanating out of vehicles, the large number of private vehicles on the roads were a bane. “Even if we convert vehicles to CNG, so far as you don’t reduce the number of cars by maximizing good public transport with less emission, it won’t matter. Levels of Nox and carbon monoxide are still a concern,” she added.