School vans to run on CNG

SCHOOL and factory vehicles currently operating on diesel or petrol will have to switch over to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in Lucknow, Kanpur and Agra. This decision, taken at the State Transport Authority (STA) meeting presided over by transport commissioner RP Shukla here today, comes into force with immediately effect.

SCHOOL and factory vehicles currently operating on diesel or petrol will have to switch over to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in Lucknow, Kanpur and Agra. This decision, taken at the State Transport Authority (STA) meeting presided over by transport commissioner RP Shukla here today, comes into force with immediately effect.

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As per the decision, the transport department will issue new permits only to those school and factory vehicles (private service vehicles) which operate on the CNG. It will also not renew the permits of the existing diesel or petrol vehicles after September 30 if the permits had been issued to them after November 10, 2004. Their permits would be renewed only after they got their vehicles converted into a CNG one, said STA secretary JA Siddiqui. Same holds true for the public service vehicles, a decision for which was taken at the STA’s last meeting. The decision comes in the wake of a Supreme Court directive to protect the environment. STA had also fixed maximum age limit of CNG vehicles at its last meeting. Now, a tempo and an auto could ply for a maximum of 10 years whereas the limit for buses will be 12 years.

Besides, STA issued 90 bus permits to the UPSRTC for 32 routes and 19 permits to the private operators for eight private routes. Among the routes for which the UPSRTC was issued the permits include Lucknow-Kolkata, Varanasi-Kolkata, Lucknow-Jaipur, Lucknow-Ajmer, Agra-Gwalior, Jhansi-Agra, and Agra-Mount Abu.