I can't seem to smell cleaner air

Take a deep breath Thank that auto
Good news. Autos converting to gas have helped clean up the air
The Times of India

YOU may not have noticed it yet, but Bangalore’s air is getting better. The move to convert all autorickshaws to LPG, has given our choking city, rated among the most polluted, some respite.

Half the autos in Bangalore have already been converted from petrol to LPG and the effects are beginning to show. The Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM), which can affect your lungs, has come down. So also sulphur dioxide in the air. Says the chief scientific officer, Pollution Control Board, Balgangadhar, “We have noticed a steady decrease in the quantities of RSPM and sulphur dioxide quantities in our ambient air, in the past six months. Both have come down by 25 percent. This is a significant amount, attributed to the change in fuel. Sulphur quantities are lower in LPG, also fewer suspended particles are emitted.”

And it’s going to get better. Says BV Ranganath, general secretary, Autorickshaw Drivers Union, “September 18 this year is the deadline to convert all autos to LPG. Right now, there are 85,000 autos in our city, 50 per cent are already converted.”

“If the conversion of 42,500 autos can improve our air by 25 percent, I can’t wait to breathe when all of them have been converted,” says Kenneth R, who has lived in Cox Town for the past 40 years and has seen Bangalore’s clean air deteriorate.

“This is great news. With petrol engines, autos drivers mix fuel with kerosene. This adds to the pollution. With LPG no adulteration is possible,” says Karthik M.

Engineering student, Rahul Prasann says, “If this is the change we can get with converting just autos, imagine what we can achieve if we converted our buses and taxis to CNG.”

There is some discrepancy about the number of autos that have so far been converted. Says traffic expert M N Sreehari, “Only 25 per cent of autos have been converted.” Which also means that with 75 per cent autos more to be converted the air may get that much cleaner. “The deadline has been stretched to March 2007,” he said. “This is keeping in mind the shortage of refilling bunks for LPG vehicles.”

Sreehari adds that the cleaner air is also due to better engines in vehicles, which adhere to Euro III norms. “Further, lead has been almost eliminated from fuels. If diesel vehicles too find an environment-friendly alternative, perhaps with CNG, our air will be really pure.”