M A I N   N E W S

LPG to fuel new era
From T.V.Lakshminarayan
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, April 7 — From being gas spewing to gas driven, the Indian automobile industry is all set for a revolution of sorts.

The Union Cabinet’s decision to allow the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), commonly known as cooking gas, as auto fuel would enable vehicle owners to drive with cleaner, cheaper and safe alternate fuel.

Though the alternative would not be as simple as lifting the cooking gas cylinder from the kitchen and loading it on the vehicle, the effort would involve driving down to the nearest gas station for a fill up at commercial rates.

The reason: the LPG supplied for cooking purposes is heavily subsidised and the Government cannot afford to extend it for automobile users.

The government has made it clear that it would find out a way to ensure that the LPG used as auto fuel is not the subsidised LPG given for cooking.

To this effect, the Government proposes to amend the Motor Vehicles Act, 1998 to allow the use of LPG as auto fuel along with permission for alteration in the motor vehicles to facilitate this.

The proposed amendments to the Act would make it mandatory for vehicle owners to seek the permission of the registering authority before altering their vehicles for shifting from one type of fuel to another.

The decision to allow the use of LPG as auto fuel has been pending for quite some time, ever since it was recognised as superior fuel to petrol and diesel in terms of the vehicular emissions. To abate pollution caused by vehicles, a number of countries in the world have been using LPG as auto fuel for more than 30 years.

In India the use of LPG as auto fuel has been prohibited by the Motor Vehicle Act and LPG Control Order, 1974. With the liberalisation in the marketing of LPG initiated in 1993 by decanalising the import of LPG and introduction of parallel marketing of LPG, a number of private sector including multinationals have started making investment in the development of infrastructure for the import of LPG and its marketing.

The availability of LPG from the public sector as well as private sector has also been increasing through indigenous production as well as imports.

To make the use of LPG as auto fuel a reality, the government will have to amend several Acts, rules, and Control Order. An expert committee has already gone into this aspect and the Cabinet decision was a result of this.

The government decision was also as a result of the large number of “illegal” LPG-driven four-wheelers on the road at present. For instance, there are several shops in the Capital which offer conversion kits for the use of LPG as an alternate fuel. The kits costing between Rs 6,500 to 13,000 enable the running of cars with cooking gas cylinders which cost around Rs 200 for 14 kg of fuel. According to an automobile expert, a Maruti standard car can run up to 350 km per cylinder, which works out to around 60 paise per km. Similarly an Ambassador model car runs around 200 to 250 kms per cylinder which again makes the running cost per km less than a rupee.

Assuming that the cylinders are bought at the commercial rate, which is around Rs 450 for a 19 kg cylinder, the running cost of a vehicle will be more or less at par with that of a diesel vehicle. A litre of diesel costs around Rs 14 and the average fuel efficiency of a vehicle ranges between 10 to 15 km.

Sources in the petroleum industry so told TNS that the Government was contemplating on how the fuel should be provided to the consumers.

In several countries, the cylinders are fixed inside the vehicle just like a petrol tank and the fuel is filled up at the various gas stations with a special nozzle. In some countries there are special replaceable cylinders. Gas can be used as a single fuel or can be alternated with petrol or diesel.

Regarding the safety aspect of using LPG as an auto fuel, the sources said the petroleum industry, the Chief Controller of Explosives at Nagpur and the automobile industry had done extensive studies on the use of a cylinder in a vehicle.

It has been conclusively proved that a specialised cylinder inside a vehicle is as “safe or unsafe” as a petrol tank. The chances of the cylinder exploding, or catching fire or for that matter leaking in case of an accident are the same as for a petrol or diesel driven vehicle.

Sources however, pointed out that the current illegal use of cooking gas in vehicles was highly dangerous as there were no safeguards. Having decided to make the use of LPG legal, the government is hoping that this would lead to the evolution of an orderly and regulated market for LPG.

The LPG marketeers can import the gas and supply it to consumers just like petrol or diesel. Since the gas would be sold at commercial rate, the government stands to lose nothing and the country would also benefit due to reduction of pollution.

The Delhi Government has already experimented with the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) as auto fuel.