Delhi Pollution: Environment ministry orders petrol cars, ignoring pollution body's advisory to buy cleaner vehicles

The environment ministry floated the tender on the Government e-Marketplace (Gem) portal on 8 May for 60 cars to be deployed in New Delhi at an estimated cost of ₹8.4 crore. Of these, 57 are petrol-powered cars – 27 units of Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and 30 units of Maruti Suzuki Dzire. The other vehicles are two Toyota Hycross hybrid cars and one Tata Nexon EV electric car.

The tender was published barely a week after the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) put out an advisory on 2 May for all governments, public sector undertakings and public institutions in the NCR to buy only battery electric vehicles, hybrids or CNG-powered vehicles.

The commission, which was set up by parliament through the CAQM Act, 2021, works to reduce the hazardous air quality in India’s national capital. New Delhi was ranked No. 1 in the world among cities with the highest AQI levels, according to the World Air Quality Report 2024.

“While the concerns of vehicular emissions are universal, considering the ultra-high density of vehicular traffic particularly in Delhi-NCR, there is a need to develop an accelerated roadmap for cleaner mobility, focusing on transition from polluting vehicles, dependent purely on fossil fuels like diesel and petrol," CAQM said in its advisory, which was also marked to the secretary of the environment ministry. It urged government entities to take the lead and mandate future purchasing, hiring or leasing of only cleaner vehicles.

Also Read | End-of-life vehicles may soon be refused fuel in Delhi to curb air pollution

The environment ministry and the CAQM did not respond to Mint’s emails seeking comment.

"If the order was for some rural areas, then it would be understandable. But in Delhi, where there is enough infrastructure for EVs and CNG cars, it is just perplexing that such an order was released," said an auto industry consultant working with the government.

Negative signal

Proposals to hire only green cars for government use have been in the offing for several years at both the state and central levels but have failed to take off meaningfully. A bid to replace government vehicles with EVs received a boost when Energy Efficiency Services Ltd floated a tender to buy 10,000 EVs for the government in 2017. However, the plan lost steam due to operational challenges and dissatisfaction among bureaucrats with the vehicles.

"The government's leadership in the space is vital. Large-scale transitions take time, and departments may occasionally need to balance immediate functional needs with long-term sustainability goals. That said, public sector procurement remains a powerful tool to drive change to green powered cars," said Saket Mehra, a partner at Grant Thornton India.

Also Read | Air pollution is a national problem. Can you live with it?

Experts said such an order can act as a negative signal for car makers, which are struggling to build EV sales volumes in the Indian market.

"The industry will get a positive signal and a push in volumes as well if the government solely dedicates to procure green energy-powered vehicles. It is important to shift away from petrol-powered cars, which has been the government's stand for some time now," said IV Rao, distinguished fellow of transport and urban governance at The Energy and Resources Institute.

EV car sales in the country grew 20% to almost 100,000 in 2024. Overall car sales in the year were 4.3 million units. Maruti Suzuki Ltd, India’s largest car seller, said the opportunity for EVs is greater outside the country than in India.

The environment ministry’s procurement order also comes when several state governments are formulating policies to encourage the adoption of EVs. The government's own target suggests that 30% of cars on the road should be EVs by 2030. In 2021, Union power minister RK Singh wrote to all Union ministers to convert the official fleet of their departments to EVs.

Also Read | Under pressure: How climate change is impacting Indian cities

Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari informed the Lok Sabha in 2022 that only 0.6% of all government vehicles were electric, i.e. 5,384 out of 847,544 units.