"Shut your shop, we cannot put the citizens at risk" tells the Supreme Court to DTC as they fail to meet the deadline to convert all buses over 8-years old to CNG. The Chief Justice bench in the Supreme Court rejects Delhi Transport Corporation’s plea for extension of the deadline to convert 8 year old buses to CNG by March 31, 2000. The ruling further squashed all demands to buy Euro II diesel buses to replace old buses. The Supreme Court will entertain a new schedule for conversion only if the Delhi government gives an undertaking in writing that it will abide by the new commitment, acceptable to the Court, and accordingly fix responsibility.

Centre for science and Environment welcomes the apex Court ruling as it sends out very strong message that the Supreme Court will not allow any dilution of its ruling of July 28, 1998 that mandated conversion of all 8 year old buses to CNG by march 31, 2000. Expressing strong displeasure at the dismal track record of the DTC to comply with the Court ruling of July 28, 1998, the bench said that DTC has not even shown serious intention to implement the Court order. Even as the deadline of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) for converting its 1,842 buses to compressed natural gas (CNG) expires today, the apex court was in no mood to pardon the DTC for failing miserably to meet its deadlines.

Effectively the new ruling implies that:

1. All the 8 year old buses that were mandated to be converted to CNG by March 31, 2000 will be off the road from April 1, 2000 onwards. "Polluting antiques have to go off the road" said Justice B N Kirpal. Such pleas from DTC that this would cause hardship to the public were swept aside by the bench on the ground that the gap could be filled by the private bus owners or by diverting inter-state buses to city roads.

2. The DTC will now have to file an application along with an undertaking. This essentially would mean that DTC would have to give a very clear schedule as to when the old buses can be converted to CNG to be endorsed by the Court, failing which, the person who has taken the undertaking could be put behind bars.

3. DTC will not be able to replace any of its bus with new Euro II diesel buses. DTC tried to do mischief by demanding that Euro II diesel buses using diesel with sulphur content of 0.05 per cent be allowed to be treated as a suitable alternative to CNG. But the judges gave a clear verdict on it: "No diesel! No diesel! No diesel!"

"We were told that Euro I cannot be brought in and we got the industry to implement Euro II norms after passing the order, so do not tell us that you cannot bring in CNG buses because we know that it can be done". This was the clear statement from Justice B N Kirpal to the DTC.

Plethora of excuses offered by Additional solicitor general Kirit N Raval ranged right from the unavailability of refuelling facilities to manufacturers not delivering CNG buses on time. This was proved wrong as the industry counsels present in the Court confirmed that no firm order had been placed by the DTC since September 1998 and that there were no pending orders with them for CNG buses. The DTC had placed its first order for CNG buses almost one year after the court order and placed orders for only 100 new CNG buses to Ashok Leyland only in January 2000.

When DTC pleaded for more time the reaction of the bench was categorical. "The transport minister says that 2 years are needed, your application states that you need 5 years and if we see the progress you have made so far, we find that you will need at least 20 years to convert the entire fleet to CNG. Do you expect the court to give you 20 years?" was Justice A S Anand’s reply. Harish Salve, the amicus curiae termed DTCs action as contempt of court. "If the DTC wanted, they could have floated a global tender and acquired the buses from any company of the world. DTC asking for more time is aimed only to defeat the court order and cannot be accepted".

CSE is delighted with this ruling. CSE strongly feels that any slip in the CNG strategy will make the target of reducing toxic particulate pollution in the Capital immensely more difficult. The immediate benefits of moving to CNG are as follow:

1. By just introducing CNG today we will be able to achieve emission levels even better than Euro IV norms which in all probability will be enforced a decade later.

2. Problem of toxic particulate emissions will be virtually eliminated.
Total hydrocarbon emissions will be high but most of it is methane. The non-methane hydrocarbon components that are cancer causing and come mostly from diesel and petrol vehicles, constitute a small fraction of the total hydrocarbon emissions from CNG vehicles.

3. The nitrogen oxide emissions from CNG vehicles will be much lower compared to diesel vehicles.

4. Sulphur dioxide emissions that also leads to formation of deadly sulphate particles will be virtually eliminated.

5. Carbon monoxide levels will be considerably lower.

6. It is common practice worldwide to assess cancer potency of different pollutants for risk assessment and management. A Swedish study confirms that the cancer potency of particulate matter emission from one new diesel car is equal to the cancer potency of particulate matter emissions of 81 CNG cars.

Priority in Delhi today is to reduce particulate emissions and its toxic effect to protect public health. Even official data of the Cancer Registry Programme in India shows that one out of every 10 to 15 people living in Delhi is likely to develop cancer during his or her life time. It is absolutely urgent that we phase in alternative fuel as fast as possible. CNG is the first clean fuel that has been introduced in Delhi under the Supreme Court order.


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