Hyderabad, April 15: The much-hyped plan of introducing Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations in Hyderabad to reduce ever-rising pollution levels will take some more time. Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) officials had earlier set a deadline of April 15 for introduction of CNG in the city.
EPCA chairman Dr Bhure Lal had said that by April 15, CNG would be made available for RTC buses and autos to start with. But it is learnt the planned fuel depots at various parts of the city would take a few more days to get completed. “Tapping of CNG from Vijayawada will take some more time because of difficulties in creating the right infrastructure at fuel stations,’’ a transport department official said.
Three dedicated CNG stations have been earmarked for RTC buses at Cantonment, Hakimpet and Medchal. In the first phase, the Bhagyanagar Gas Ltd will supply CNG for 350 buses. The total fleet of APSRTC is around 3,500 buses.
RTC officials had thought of using CNG conversion kits for the remaining buses. But they had to change their plans midway. “The experiment to use CNG kits to convert a diesel-run bus into a CNG bus turned out to be a failure in Mumbai. So, it is not possible to convert 3,000-odd buses into CNG buses,” a senior RTC official said.
–Agencies