The purchase of buses with Bharat Stage (BS) III emissions by Uttarakhand Roadways instead of the latest BS IV has raised many an eyebrow. Transport Minister Navprabhat has sought the details of the purchase of these buses from top officials of the transport department and Uttarakhand Roadways.
To replace its aging fleet of buses the Uttarakhand roadways had recently purchased 483 new buses. The purchase of these buses has come under scanner as the transport department is registering the buses with BS IV emission norms only from April 01 this year.
The emission norms are getting stringent with time as the government is trying to reduce the level of pollution.
After much delay, the Uttarakhand government cleared the tender for purchase of these buses in the month of May this year. Interestingly the norms for passenger buses were upgraded to Bharat State IV from Bharat Stage III from October 01, 2015 in the country. Uttarakhand was given a relaxation of six months on the norms and this rule was implemented from April 01 this year. In the mega deal, 367 buses were bought from Ashok leyland while 116 were purchased from Tata motors.
In the purchase 250 buses are of narrow wheel base (166 inches), which would be used for the mountainous routes.
The roadways have received first lot of 150 buses and all buses are expected to land in different depots by October end.
When confronted as to why older version of buses were purchased, the General Manager (GM) Operations of Uttarakhand Roadways Deepak Jain said that the decision was taken to save revenue as one stage IV bus is dearer by about Rs 4 lakhs than the stage III one.
The other factor he listed was unavailability of the buses conforming to the BS IV norms. He accepted that the emission norms mandate that buses with BS IV emission norms should be purchased but the rule gives relaxation for buses with Inter state permit. He claimed that neighboring Uttar Pradesh has given order to purchase 1500 stage III buses after Uttarakhand.
Jain said that the routes of most of the buses of state are such that they have to pass through UP or other state so we need inter state permit for almost all buses.
“The decision to purchase BS III emission buses was conscious, collective and was taken to save money. The entire process of purchase was totally transparent and e-tendering method was followed in this purchase,’’ he said.
The experts however opine that an investigation is needed in the issue. “The excuse of price does not stand. No one is purchasing old buses but we purchased them in bulk. Further inter state permit is needed for buses with bigger chassis as they ply on plain routes of Uttarakhand and UP but what about the buses purchased for intra state hill routes IJ There is a whiff of scam in the entire purchase,’’ said one of an expert.
The Mashelkar committee report for the auto-fuel policy paved the way for an emission regime for vehicles in India. The harmful emissions, which are identified for regulations in different Bharat Stages are carbon monoxide (CO), un burnt hydrocarbons (HC) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx). The vehicles need to conform to emission norms and higher limit of emission is fixed at every stage. The vehicles with BS IV would emit less harmful emission than those conforming BS III norms.