The reason behind this is an almost criminal cycle of blame between the government, the auto industry and the oil companies. Diesel exhaust is an invisible killer in Delhi and this is because India has slowed down adopting cleaner technology for cars.
It was in 2005 that the West adopted the Euro 4 emission standard for cars, India did that in 2010. When Europe went for the stringent Euro 6 norms in 2014; India plans to reach there ten years later.
Sunita Narain from Centre for Science and Environment said, "If we do not catch up with Europe, we'll basically be breathing very very foul air. What India needs is to do this investment at one time instead of this incremental gain."
And this is how India can benefit if it leapfrogs. Currently, the cleanest diesel cars in india pump out 250 milligrams of the nitrogen oxide per km. If Euro 6 norms were to be adopted, this will come down by a phenomenal 68% for diesel and 25% for petrol cars. Particulate matter too will come crashing down by 80%.
"When we said bring in Euro 3 , Euro 2 ,oh it cant be done they refrained, from the oil companies to the automobiles said we just cant do it. clean air its not a trade offs between the interest of the automobile industry and the health of the citizen health of the citizen is not negotiable , if you cant make cars which are healthy go out of the market we will import them somebody in the world will make them", said Harish Salve, who helped push for Euro 4 or Bharat Stage 4 norms in India.
Data shows that if the leap from Euro 4 to Euro 6 emission norms is taken, it will reduce the poisonous emissions from cars up to 3 times. But ironically car manufactures in India are producing Euro 6 compliant engines only for European markets.
And this is where the blame game starts. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways said, "We want Euro 6 but auto companies need time" But the auto industry simply shifts the blame onto oil companies. "The car that has been manufactured for export will only run in those markets, but if you were to run that car in India, that technology might fail. Oil companies need to gear up to supplying 10 ppm fuel to us", says Vishnu Mathur, Director General, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
Narendra Taneja, advisor to the ministry of petroleum believes that this upgrade is urgent but expensive. "The auto industry needs to upgrade its infrastructure, their machines and accordingly the entire system. Majority of our refineries, mostly owned by the government of India, are rather old in terms of technology, practice, so you need to upgrade them! We need a 14 billion dollar investment to upgrade these refineries", he said.
But the situation in India is much worse. All of India, except 13 cities, still adopts the Bharat stage 3 norms. Bharat Stage 4, what Delhi runs on, will only be implemented countrywide in 2017!
The buck passes from auto manufacturers to government and to oil companies, but what we fail to realise is that this blame game affects the quality of air you and I are breathing and this it's only getting worse.
