With a daily consumption of 10 lakh litres of diesel — which adds up to three crore litres a month and 36 crore litres a year — anybody may blame the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses of tremendous air pollution. However, the corporation has no bio-diesel in their buses.
This makes Maharashtra the third state after Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to use bio-diesel in state transport buses. After completing testing in Parivartan buses in Dapodi, Pune, the corporation will use 20% bio-diesel (made from plants) along with regular diesel for testing in all its buses at the Wada depot in Thane.
“It is part of our effort to protect the environment, since we are the highest users of the fuel,” said MSRTC vice-chairman Deepak Kapoor. “The use of bio-diesel will reduce pollution on an average by 35%. Our cost will also come down by 15 paise per km since the cost of bio-diesel is Rs1.20 less than that of diesel.”
He added: “The corporation will expand the use of bio-diesel to six more depots by December-end. By using this eco-friendly fuel in the Wada depot alone, the corporation will be saving fuel worth Rs15 to 16 crore.”
Asked why the experiment is being conducted in only one depot in spite of excellent results previously, Kapoor said, “We do not want the engines of our buses to be damaged. We have not used bio-diesel in other buses, such as the semi-luxury, Volvo and Mercedes Benz models. However, we have been conducting tests on these brands.”
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