‘Can’t ban diesel cars overnight’

New Delhi: Sudden banning of diesel vehicles is only a knee-jerk reaction, Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday. Calling for carrying out a proper study to determine the exact causes of deteriorating air quality in Delhi, the minister said that phasing out of old diesel vehicles can’t be done overnight. “If there is no proper diagnosis how will you treat the disease? We need a comprehensive research by a good agency to find the reasons of air pollution,” he said during an interaction with TOI.Gadkari said he has suggested to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal that they should commission a “comprehensive scientific” study on sources of air pollution in the city. He said pollution has to be reduced and <01Justify>it’s true that diesel is more polluting. But to change this <01Justify>they can’t start suddenly one morning.
Referring to a report by IIT, Kanpur, which mentioned only 18% of air pollution in Delhi is caused by automobiles, Gadkari said that though the focus is on vehicles, they are not the largest source of air pollution.
On AAP government’s ‘Odd-Even’ formula to beat air pollution and congestion, Gadkari said, “Some people believe in naturopathy, ayurvedic and we should allow them to choose whatever stream of medicine they want.”
He was also candid about the role of judiciary in matters of decision making by the government. When asked if his ministry will contest the Supreme Court orders of imposing tax on medium and small diesel private cars, Gadkari said, “In a democracy there is media, judiciary, executive and the legislature. Fortunately all stakeholders’ duties have been explained in the Constitution. For instance, Wankhede stadium—if there is a lawn you will have to water it. From Wankhede stadium you cannot supply water to Latur. Instead if you had a match, Maharashtra government can get Rs 125 crore tax, the teams could have donated for Latur too. But the match was stopped instead. One should allow the government to decide if the match should continue.”
Stating that both economy and ecology are important while dealing with air pollution he said that while the thought behind the earlier Supreme Court decision to ban diesel taxis was correct, but its impact on all stakeholders also needed to be considered. Agreeing to the need of phasing out old diesel vehicles he said, “It cannot be a sudden decision to ban anything. The most important thing is in Delhi for instance taxi permits have been issued till 2020. Taxi drivers have taken loans from banks. Loans are with 13 to 14% interest. If you shut them down how will one lakh people or drivers survive?” he asked.
However, Gadkari said that once the BS-VI fuel is introduced in 2020, it will address the problem of polluting diesel. The government is also for upscaling of alternative technologies like ethanol, bio-diesel, CNG, bio-CNG and electric vehicles. “The sewage water from the city can be used to produce bio-CNG. Nagpur has hundred buses on bio-CNG now. The calorific value of bio-CNG is higher. In fact it performs better than petrol and diesel. We are applying the philosophy of waste to wealth.” Gadkari said adding that lithium ion batteries will also be produced commercially soon.