Comments
The sale of auto LPG recorded a 24.8 per cent jump in Telangana during October to December 2016, following a reduction in prices of the clean fuel.
According to Suyash Gupta, Director General of the Indian Auto LPG Coalition (IAC), oil companies--Indian Oil, HPCL, and BPCL have, since October 2016, reduced the auto LPG price.
The cost reduction has led to a 16 per cent jump of LPG use nationally during October-December 2016.
While different regions showed different rates of growth in sales volume, Telangana registered an impressive sales volume jump from 1378 MT to 1716 MT between September-December 2016, a growth of 24.8 per cent.
“Auto LPG is a low hanging fruit and government must make use of this to make a tangible effect on air quality immediately. Most other cleaner fuels are still at a drawing board stage. This reduction of price led by the oil companies means that Auto LPG now costs about 50 per cent of the price of petrol, making it even cheaper than diesel,” Gupta said in a statement.
IAC is the nodal body for the promotion of Auto LPG in India and its members include major oil sector PSUs, private auto LPG marketers, kit suppliers and equipment manufacturers.
Out of the 1,100 auto LPG filling outlets in 500 cities across India, more than 50 per cent are owned by the public sector companies and the rest are operated by private players.
Telangana has 23 auto LPG stations across 5 cities with Hyderabad having 18 stations.
A recent study conducted by Marketing and Development Research Associates states auto LPG can quickly replace diesel and petrol in transport across the country as the fuel can be transported by tankers and sold through existing filling stations, unlike CNG that requires the laying of pipelines, which takes several years. According to President IAC and Executive Director of Indian Oil Corporation Y.K.Gupta,“Auto LPG’s operating expenses are upto 50 per cent lower than petrol, and cost of LPG vehicles – both factory fitted or Original Equipment Manufacturer and retro-fit is also lower than that of CNG.”
Retrofitting an LPG car costs Rs 20,000 compared to Rs 30,000 for a CNG car. And an LPG kit for a bike would come for Rs 7,000 while it would be about Rs 13,000 for a CNG bike.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.