'Govt should focus on converting 30 cr on-road vehicles to clean fuels'

New Delhi, May 28 (IANS) The government should focus on converting around 30 crore vehicles currently running on petrol and diesel to clean fuels in a bid to improve the air quality, said Indian Auto LPG Coalition, apex body of Auto LPG stakeholders.

In a statement, the industry body said that with mass adoption of electric vehicles still a distant future, an absence of a near term strategy to convert existing vehicles to cleaner alternatives is a crucial policy oversight.

Indian Auto LPG Coalition has said that government's indifference towards immediately available clean alternative fuels is proving to be a major health bane for the country.

"Electric Vehicles are still in very early stages of adoption and even the most optimistic projections suggest that a mass adoption is not likely to begin at least till another decade. Meanwhile, around 300 million vehicles including two wheelers continue to produce toxic emissions," said Suyash Gupta, Director General, Indian Auto LPG Coalition.

The statement also noted that there remains a large untapped market for vehicle conversions in India with consumers actively looking to cleaner as well as cheaper alternatives to petrol and diesel. In this situation, a positive messaging from the government supported by regulatory easing and fiscal incentives can bring about a largescale clean switch.