BS VI Emission Norms To Be Introduced by April 2020

Government is not leaving any stone unturned to implement BS VI Emission norms from April 2020 as announced earlier. In fact, the central government is all set to skip BS-V norm that was supposed to be effective from 2017. Importantly, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has amended the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 to implement the Bharat Stage-IV (BS-IV) mass emission standards for four wheeled vehicles since the year 2010 onwards in select cities in a phased manner. Also for all the two wheeled, three wheeled and four wheeled vehicles, BS IV norms would be mandatory from April 1, 2017 and importantly government is in no mood to review this deadline.

Also Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Pon Radhakrishnan informed Parliament that government has already finalised that BSVI fuel norm will become mandatory from April 1, 2020 and rigorous consultation has been done with Ministry of Petroleum and National Gas, Department of Heavy industry and Ministry of Environment. Important to note that automobile industry is opposing this move of the government as they are saying that huge investment would be required by the vehicle manufacturers to adhere to this norm and implementing it early would have an adverse impact on the industry.

In another development government has permitted one-time fund infusion to revive and physically complete languishing national highway projects under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode and also allowed rationalised compensation to concessionaires, in case delays are not attributable to them, to increase funds to highway sector. Also government has taken various steps to remove the hurdles affecting the construction of NH projects. It includes streamlining of land acquisition and regulatory clearances, close coordination with other ministries, revamped Disputes Resolution Mechanism etc. In another significant move NHAI has also decided not to award projects till all major pre-construction approvals are in-place for the project in order to avoid post bid delays and litigations.