Buses to run on diesel blended with ethanol in Mysore and 20 other depots

Creation date: 21 August 2007

Chief Environmental Officer of KSRTC Ananda Rao speaking at a function to mark Renewable Energy Day in Mysore on Monday.

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is gearing up to convert a significant size of its fleet to run on diesel blended with ethanol in Mysore and 20 other depots in the State.

This is part of the KSRTC's ongoing exercise to reduce fuel consumption and reduce carbon emissions by 70 per cent while enhancing fuel efficiency significantly.

Disclosing this, Chief Environmental Officer of the KSRTC Anand Rao said that this was expected to significantly lower diesel consumption by about 10 per cent and the organisation was also set to emerge as the first in Southeast Asia to introduce bio- diesel as fuel for public transport.

He was speaking at the Renewable Energy Day function organised at the Institution of Engineers here in association with the Mysore Grahakara Parishat and the KEB Engineers Association on Monday.

He said the ethanol-diesel blend met Euro-3 emission norms without entailing any additional investment. What began as an experiment with two vehicles in 2006 would be expanded to cover more than 2,500 vehicles by the end of this year. Mr.

Rao said that this was significant in view of India's growing dependence on imported oil, which was increasing at the rate of 15 per cent every year. Hence the KSRTC had embarked on a project to reduce fossil fuel consumption.

Commissioner of Police Bhaskar Rao, who inaugurated the programme, referred to his stint in the KSRTC and said that the organisation had become a subject for a case study on tapping renewable energy resources, which was a step forward in meeting environmental imperatives and reducing dependence on oil.

In this context, he said the new challenge would be to improve the public transport system so that it would emerge as a mass transport system and encourage more number of people to patronise it. Public transport managers would have a challenging task ahead to revolutionise the system so that it would discourage people from using private vehicles.

Ashok Kumar, Divisional Controller, KSRTC, Mysore division, said the Bus Rapid Transit System would be introduced in Mysore.

Source: Hindu Times