The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers asked requested the ministry of surface transport to send a clarification to the transport commissioners of all states that vehicles that conform to Bharat Stage-II norms produced on or before March 31, 2005 could be sold in 12 designated cities.
However, vehicles that would be sold in the 12 cites, but manufactured on or after April 1, 2005, would have to be BS-III compliant.
The 12 cities that would embrace the BS-III norms from the beginning of the next financial year are the National Capital Region (which includes Delhi), Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur and Agra.
The BS-III norms seek to bring down the sulphur content in vehicular emissions, thus bringing down the pollution levels in the 12 cities.
SIAM's move apparently comes from the recent developments in Karnataka and Gujarat, where the RTOs in Bangalore, Surat and Ahmedabad had issued notifications to stop the registration of vehicles that did not conform to BS-III norms from April 1, 2005.
The respective RTOs had, according to SIAM sources, misinterpreted the new guidelines for emission discharge.
While Chief Minister Dharam Singh of Karnataka in a recent meeting with the Confederation of Indian Industries had assured taking corrective steps to ensure the guidelines were interpreted correctly, SIAM was in talks with the Gujarat government, too, to ensure that such a notification be sent to the RTOs.
SIAM's application to the ministry of surface transport was to ensure that other states did not misinterpret the new emission guidelines, which could leave automobile manufacturers with large stock of BS-II vehicles produced before April 1, 2005.
SIAM has also clarified that since all vehicles had been stamped with the date of manufacture, the BS-II compliant automobiles produced after April 1 would not be sold in the 12 designated states.
Automobile manufactures across the country are gearing to meet the new BS-III norms that will come into force in 12 cities. Most manufactures have already announced the launch of BS-III variants of their popular brands. Prices of most BS-III variants have been hiked by over Rs 5,000.
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