Tough measures needed to conserve Delhi's environment

Delhi needs to urgently improve the fuel quality of vehicles and upgrade their emission technology if it wants to make the ambient air breathable, experts said. According to Mr Sumit Sharma, Fellow, TERI, CNG fuel and Metro could have brought particulate matter concentrations down but fuel quality for other activities remains inferior. Delhi still relies on Bharat Stage-IV norms whereas the world has moved to Euro 5 and 6 standards. According to Mr Sharma, the Auto Fuel Policy 2002 had the mandate of bringing 13 cities under BS-IV norms and the rest under BS-III by 2010. BS-IV is the equivalent of Euro 4. Four years have been lost since then and the future roadmap has still not been prepared. Only 22 cities adhere to BS-IV norms, while other cities are still using BS-III fuels.