Noida, Ghaziabad to Agra residents, your petrol just underwent a pleasant change

Supply of ultra-clean Euro-VI grade petrol and diesel has begun in cities adjoining the national capital from Monday, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said. While Delhi in April 2018 became the first city in the country to leapfrog from Euro-IV grade petrol and diesel to Euro-VI fuels, cities in the national capital region like Noida and Ghaziabad switched over to the cleaner fuel from Monday.

Rest of the country will follow suit from April 2020.

"Oil companies keep up BS-VI (Euro-VI) promise! 12 NCR districts and city of Agra converted to BS-VI green fuels from today," IOC said in a series of tweets.

In keeping with the implementation plan for BS-VI grade fuels in the national capital region (NCR), the oil industry Monday switched over to supply of BS-VI grade transportaiton fuels in 12 contiguous districts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh as well as the city of Agra, it said.

Petrol and diesel containing 10 parts per million or ppm is now being supplied in Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli and Dholpur in Rajasthan and Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Baghpat, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Shamli and Agra in Uttar Pradesh.

Originally Gurugram and Faridabad too were to get Euro-VI grade fuel from April 1 but supplies there have been postponed.

India had in 2015 decided to leapfrog to Euro-VI emission norm compliant petrol and diesel from April 2020, from the Euro-IV grade at present.

While the deadline for the rest of the country stands, the same for Delhi, which is choking on thick toxic smog, was brought forward.

Euro-VI grade fuel contains 10 ppm of sulphur as against 50 ppm in Euro-VI fuels.

"BS-VI fuels would be supplied through 1,630 fuel stations of the three OMCs (IOC, BPCL and HPCL) in Delhi and NCR region," IOC tweeted.