Euro I in June 1999 and Euro II in April 2000, within a span of nine months. Despite the proof that the industry can be pushed to get their act together fast their own agenda for action lacks the sense of urgency and is extremely lax. Though, it is an important development that the automobile industry has come forward to present their charter of action to improve emission levels to the public, it will defeat the purpose if such gestures remain cosmetic and without serious intention to improve technology fast. CSE is very unhappy with the proposal that the heavy duty vehicle industry will skip Euro III to continue with the dirtier technology of Euro II for seven more years and then implement Euro IV norms in 2008. Keeping in mind the fact that, diesel is not immediately substitutable in trucks and also in buses in many cities of India, it is more important to implement Euro III not later than 2002 and then Euro IV by 2005 to catch up with Europe.
Diesel run buses and trucks are the one of the most polluting segments.
Thereafter, to study the feasibility of further improvements of two wheeler technology and accordingly improve standards in 2009. The starkest revelation made in the SIAM press conference on Monday was that the two wheelers industry has probably reached the limit of technology improvements. While it would be possible for them to improve the technology just one notch higher in 2005 over the current India 2000 norms thereafter they would need to undertake a technical feasibility study to assess further improvements possible. While the Indian two wheeler industry boasts that they meet the most stringent emission norms for two-wheelers and that there is no precedent to follow, it remains unaware that it is Switzerland that meets emission levels about half of what the Indian Industry is meeting today with two stroke technology and catalytic converters. Any suggestion to forward deadlines for tighter norms were set aside by the industry panel in the press conference on the grounds that it would need huge investments.