CNG is being encouraged in cities with severe air pollution problems

Claims that other cities of the world are not going for natural gas buses are not true. But it is important to note that the reason London or New York or Bonn do not have the numbers of CNG buses is because they also do not have the pollution levels we have in our cities. These countries have made huge investments to clean up air pollution in the past and they have cleaner air today. CNG is the technology they will use to meet the stringent norms - Euro IV or California low emission vehicle standards - to be enforced from 2004 onwards. The share of natural gas buses is growing and in the US, CNG buses account for 18 per cent of the current bus orders and 28 per cent of potential orders.

But cities which have critically high pollution levels - Delhi, Beijing, Seoul -- need CNG today, simply because CNG leapfrogs these cities to Euro IV in most key pollutants. In other words, it gives the city some "breathing space".

These cities have large numbers of old vehicles on the road and have few options of getting rid of these vehicles quickly. Emission norms were introduced late in these cities and therefore, vehicles are old and polluting. For instance in Delhi, which has the unique position of having a cap on the age of commercial vehicles (because of the Supreme Court directive) less than 20 per cent of the vehicles on the road today meet Euro I or Euro II norms.

Beijing
Beijing under pressure to clean up the air because of the approaching Olympic Games in 2004 has resorted to an alternative fuel strategy. Latest figures from Tsinghua University in Beijing, Science and Technology Commission of Beijing and Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau there will be 18,000 buses fuelled by CNG, LPG and electricity in the city. Apart from this there are a total of about 1500 electric driven vehicles in Beijing. By 1999, Beijing already had 1300 CNG buses and the numbers are growing rapidly to meet the Olympic deadline..

Sources: Dongquan HE 2002, Transportation Program Officer, China Sustainable
Energy Program, The Energy Foundation -- Beijing Office, Clean Air Initiative Asia, Discussion forum of World Bank, March 4, 2002, mimeo.
Glen M Watt, Gas technology Services, Australia, 2000, Natural Gas Vehicle, Transit bus fleets: The Current International experience, International Association for natural Gas Vehicles, mimeo.


South Korea
The Ministry of Environment in Korea - partly to meet the targets in time for 2002 World Cup -- aims to induct 20,000 natural gas buses in its fleet and already 3000 buses are plying.
Source: Moon-Soo Ahn 2000, Korean CNG bus programme The Environmental Benefits, Ministry of Environment, Korea, Automotive Pollution Control Division, mimeo.


Industrialised countries

In advanced countries CNG and LPG buses are becoming popular. But these cities have fewer numbers of buses and lesser intensity of bus use and comparatively lesser relative contribution of buses to air pollution.
·    Los Angeles, California has more than 900 CNG buses.
·    France in 2000 had ordered for more than 900 CNG buses.
·    Italy in 1999 had 169 natural gas bus on the road and had placed orders for 564. Sweden had 320 natural gas buses in 2000,
·    Greece 295
·    Japan 250.
Source: Glen M Watt, Gas technology Services, Australia, 2000, Natural Gas Vehicle, Transit bus fleets: The Current International experience, International Association for natural Gas Vehicles

• In the US the numbers of natural gas buses are increasing rapidly. Though the existing natural gas buses uses account for 7 per cent of the existing bus fleet, natural gas buses constitute 18 per cent of the current new bus orders, and 28 per cent of the potential orders, indicating an increasing market share for natural gas buses overtime .