NEW DELHI:It is a bold decision and a commitment to environment, says Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari

In a bid to curb vehicular pollution, the government on Wednesday decided to implement stricter emission norms of Bharat Stage (BS) VI from April 1, 2020 by skipping BS-V altogether.

The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, which was attended by Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar. “Government has decided to leapfrog from BS-IV to BS-VI directly by April 1, 2020. We have decided to skip BS-VI emission norms. It is a bold decision and a commitment to environment,” Gadkari said after the meeting. All the other ministries have assured cooperation to make the implementation successful, he added. At the end of December, Pradhan had stated that India would go straight from Euro-IV compliant petrol and diesel to Euro-VI fuel by 2020. Earlier, a meeting of an inter-ministerial group, including representatives of Ministries of Road Transport and Highways, Petroleum, Heavy Industries and Environment and Forests, was unable to reach a consensus. The Road Transport and Highways Ministry was of the view that the roll out of BS-V norms must start from 2019, but the Petroleum Ministry expressed its inability to comply with the deadline. Earlier in November, a draft notification by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had advanced dates for implementation of BS-V norms to April 1, 2019 and BS-VI norms to April 1, 2021. At present, BS-IV auto fuels are being supplied in whole of northern India covering J&K, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, parts of Rajasthan and western UP. The rest of the country has BS-III grade fuel.PTI