Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, the Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas has informed Lok Sabha yesterday in a written reply that BS-IV fuel will be available across whole India in a phased manner by April 1, 2017.
In the first phase, BS-IV fuel has been made available to the Northern India covering J&K (except Leh/Kargil), Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and the bordering districts of Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh which was completed in April 2015.
In the second phase, BS-IV fuel was made available to the southern part of the country covering Goa, Kerala, Telangana, Odisha, Karnataka and the Union territories of Daman and Diu, Dadra-Nagar-haveli and Andaman & Nicobar, Parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The highway link through Rajasthan and Gujarat linking Northern India to the Western Coasts was also covered. The second phase has been completed by April 2016.
The Ministry had also issued an order to all of the Oil Marketing Companies and other stakeholders on May 22, 2015 to switching the quality of their fuel from BS-IV to BS-VI from April 2020. The companies has started upgrading their refineries which will cost the 30,000 crores approx to provide hundred percent BS-IV fuel by 2017.