BS-IV Fuel Will Be Available Across India In 2017

The Government has confirmed that BS-IV fuel will be made available across the entire country by April 1, 2017.

The government's answer was provided by the Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas (Independent Charge), Dharmendra Pradhan, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on August 1.

BS-IV fuel is being made available across the nation in a phased manner. In the first phase, which was completed in April 2015, BS-IV grade fuel was made available in the states of Jammu and Kashmir (except Leh and Kargil), Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, and the Delhi NCR region, along with certain areas in western UP and Rajasthan.

The second phase which was completed in April 2016, saw BS-IV fuel being made available in the Southern Indian states of Goa, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, and Kerala along with a few parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The Union territories of Daman & Diu, Dadra-Nagar-Haveli, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands were also covered, as was the highway link through Gujarat and Rajasthan, linking North India to sea ports in western India.

The rest of the nation is expected to get BS-IV quality fuel by April 2017.

India will switch from BS-IV to BS-VI grade fuel by 2020, skipping BS-V norms altogether, as the government tries to counter high pollution levels across the country.