THAILAND

The petroleum authority of Thailand (ptt) has signed a contract with Ford Motors to work on a research project that aims to encourage the use of bioethanol fuels instead of diesel in vehicles. The country will soon have its first taste of passenger vehicles running on compressed natural gas (cng). The vehicles will be provided by General Motors (gm), which will also make efforts for developing natural gas as an alternative fuel. Natural gas is the cheapest fossil fuel and Thailand has substantial reserves of it.

Gas distress

While all those orders of the Supreme Court (sc) directed towards the corporate sector - public or private - have largely resulted in action, orders to the government - state or central - have usually resulted in total chaos. In April 1999, when the sc gave the auto industry just about two months to move its engines to Euro i and about 11 months to move to Euro ii , the industry met the deadlines.

Nothing to smile about!

hailed as a "bold" step to create the right environment for economic reforms, the Union Budget, presented by Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha on February 28, totally ignores the real environment. Rather, it creates an atmosphere to pollute the environment in more ways than one.

Soot, unsuitable for the climate

soot or black carbon particles combine with other aerosols to influence climate. The magnitude of the climate forcing caused directly or indirectly by black carbon exceeds that caused by methane, suggesting that black carbon may be the second most important component of global warming after carbon dioxide.

Sinha's trick

If you saw tv programmes or read newspapers on the latest budget, you would have thought it is only for business leaders. The manner in which business editors and columnists went overboard to seek the response of the corporate community to Yashwant Sinha's latest hat-trick of budgetary numbers shows a mind-set that nobody else is important in modern India.

but why CNG?

A study says particles emitted by diesel engines can harm the foetus, breaching the safety of the womb. Another study says the risk of developing cancer is four times higher among children travelling in a diesel bus as compared to someone travelling in a car in front of the bus.

Union ministry of surface transport

The Union ministry of surface transport (most) frames vehicular emission norms and notifies certification procedures for vehicles, as per the Central Motors Vehicles Act (cmva). The emission norms for converted cng buses were notified on February 9, 2000, more than one and half years after the sc order of July 28, 1998. That, too, after a great deal of hesitation.

Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas

If the Delhi Transport Corporation and the State Transport Authority do not increase the number of their buses, why should we increase capacity for supply? If I order equipment worth several crore rupees without there being adequate number of buses, how would I answer to my superiors?" Thus Rajiv Sharma, managing director of Indraprastha Gas Limited (igl).

Ministry of Environment and Forests

In complete mockery of its very title, the Union ministry of environment and forests (mef) has shown no interest in pushing for implementation of the cng order despite all the power at its disposal. mef is only too happy with the national emission standards, which are nothing more than the minimum requirement.

Abandoned to fate

Though private bus operators will have to shoulder a bulk of the responsibility of phasing in CNG buses, they were the last to be informed by the Delhi government. The first public notification for them came in October 1999. The first meeting to discuss the logistics with them happened as late as August 2000. Private bus operators chose to ignore repeated messages from the Supreme Court over the last two years and continued to buy diesel buses. Because the state government registering diesel buses, they went ahead with buying new ones.