The government is likely to soon hold discussions with construction equipment manufacturers on development of clean fuel variants in the segment, sources told CNBC-TV18.
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The move comes against the backdrop of EPCA or Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority advocating for promotion of clean fuel in the construction equipment category. They have also been advocating for advancement of transmission for this category of automobiles from BS-III to BS-IV fuel emission norms with effect from April. Presently, these vehicles have been asked to adhere to BS-IV fuel emission norms from October 2020.
"The meeting has been pending for sometime. It will be convened soon to discuss what can be done to encourage more clean fuel options in this category and reduce the level of air pollution emitted from such vehicles," one of the people aware of the development said.
Currently, nearly 99 percent of the construction equipment in India are driven by diesel. As per industry experts, companies have been arguing in favour of diesel option as this provides them higher power and torque. In fact, several players have said that conversion to a cleaner fuel like compressed natural gas or CNG may result in loss of 16-20 percent power.
"It is a difficult situation. Globally, companies prefer diesel option in this category and such is the case here as well. Dual fuel is an option which can work well with some caps in terms of load factor. For example, it can be advised that the equipment may run on a cleaner fuel like CNG when it is handling 50-60 percent of load potential and can switch to diesel on more than that. Without a set limit, this will be an eyewash as people would prefer diesel only," another industry expert said.
On the other hand, availability of fuel and preparedness of the market are bottlenecks for broad-based usage of such variants, the expert added.
In India, JCB, Escorts, Caterpillar, Sonalika, CASE, TAFE and Mahindra are some of the companies involved in the construction equipment manufacturing.
While the date for discussion between the road, transport and highways ministry and manufacturers of earthmoving vehicles, hydraulic excavators, cranes and dozers has not been set yet, it is expected to lay the roadmap for reducing pollution from this particular segment of vehicles.
