Shocked and concerned by the decision of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to ban registration of new diesel vehicles in Delhi, Dr. Pawan Goenka, Executive Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd has stated that “diesel vehicles have become the whipping boy”  and are being seen as the “biggest villains”. Dr Goenka was speaking to the media through telephone conferencing. “Over the years diesel fuel and vehicles have become a favourite whipping boy in our country," he said. He asked that "when our product is meeting all laws of the land how can it be banned overnight.” 

December 11, 2015, the NGT had banned registration of new diesel vehicles till January 6, 2016 in Delhi amid rising concerns over pollution in the city. It also told the government not to renew the registration of diesel vehicles more than 10 years old. The NGT decision came a day after Supreme Court said it would examine if diesel vehicles could be banned in the capital. January 6, 2016 is also the next date of hearing on a petition against air pollution in the city.

The three prime sources of air pollution in Delhi as well as NCR, according to NGT are burning of municipal waste, dust generated by construction and vehicular pollution.  The NGT had addressed the issues related to waste burning and construction dust in its previous orders. Sadly, waste burning still continues while construction continues in full force in every corner of Delhi and NCR.

Dr Goenka’s company Mahindra & Mahindra is perhaps the only automobile major in India that has in its portfolio only diesel engines and many of its diesel vehicles like Scorpio, XUV 500, the newly launched TUV 300 and Bolero are extremely popular in Delhi in the passenger car segment.

Admitting that there is a problem on the air quality front in India, especially New Delhi, Dr Goenka said it was sad that “diesel vehicle are made to be the villains”. He said while it is true that diesel vehicles fare the worst in terms of particulate matter (PM), but he pointed out that CNG and petrol vehicle are no less. He said CNG vehicles fare the worst when it comes to NOx levels and petrol worst when it comes to CO.  “Why not have electric vehicles only?” he asked.

“I am an engineer and as an engineer I only understand scientific data and cannot be swayed by directional unquantified statements. I would like to put some facts in front of you. These facts have been talked about in bits and pieces over a few years.  I believe that all the hard work being done by our engineers and scientists in the last 15 years to make vehicles cleaner has been thrown out off the window by one order given by NGT,” Dr Goenka stated.

Putting things in the right perspective, Dr Goenka said by introducing the BS IV emission norms, the PM level of 2.5 had come down by 82 pc and NOx by 51pc and in going from BS IV to BS V the PM level will come down by another 80pc and NOx by another 36pc. “The fact is that BS V implementation has been delayed by almost 3 years from the original plan that we had because of late introduction of BS IV fuels throughout the country. BS IV should have come by 2014 as per the original plan and BS V should be coming about now. But it is delayed by 3 years as BS IV fuels were not available throughout the country in the time frame,” he explained.

He said the government needs to look at the pollution issue in a “holistic manner”.  “Why not ban construction,” he said, alluding to the fact that there are a lot more industries and activities that are causing pollution and banning them was not the solution. “I find it amazing that diesel vehicle is made culprit,” he said. “One can say banning diesel will improve the air quality in Delhi but we have to look at many more things and look at it in a holistic manner. If we were to ban things then many things can be banned to improve air quality. Why not ban construction? If you ban construction then air quality will also improve. It is a ridiculous thing to do but I am just making a point,” he said.