[h@r$h@l]

This is getting really funny. Yesterday HC gives an order to convert all vehicles into CNG in a years time and today its announced that Gujarat may run out of gas

Gujarat may run out of gas; Lacks Facilities To Enforce HC Order

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court order to convert all state vehicles to natural gas has left the state machinery and vehicle owners in a lurch. The court on Wednesday ordered the state government to convert all vehicles registered in the state* to compressed natural gas (CNG) within a year.

The existing infrastructure is inadequate to support 32 lakh vehicles – cars, rickshaws and other commercial carriers – of which just about four lakh run on CNG. A rough calculation suggests it would take close to Rs 3,000 crore just to convert 10 lakh petrol cars to CNG.

The state accounts for more than one-third of the total natural gas consumed in the country. However, the penetration of CNG in the state is less just over 50%. “Gujarat has 258 CNG stations and around 2,000 petrol pumps. If all private and commercial vehicles are converted to CNG, we would need to add at least another 500 stations in less than a year,” said Gujarat Petrol Dealers' Association secretary Arvind Thakkar.

Several districts in the state like Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Porbandar and Kutch, among others, don’t even have a single CNG station. The court has also directed the Centre to allocate natural gas, including CNG to Ahmedabad city at the same price as it supplies to Delhi and Mumbai under the Administered Price Mechanism (APM).

In Ahmedabad, for instance, there were about 80 cars converted to CNG everyday when the fuel price hovered around Rs 30, says Ahmedabad regional transport officer Jyotish Bhatt. This has halved after CNG prices kept on soaring – it costs Rs 53 per kg now.

“Ahmedabad and other cities should get natural gas under the APM. However, we haven’t received the court order and can’t comment on conversion of all vehicles to CNG at this juncture,” said state energy minister Saurabh Patel. The court has directed the state government to pass necessary orders for converting to CNG.

Highlighted some interesting points.

1. Does this mean the CH , HR reg vechicles that are by the dozen in the city dont have to worry?
2. The CNG Pumps to petrol Pump ratio is absurd.
3. Does this mean people from Porbandar etc have to go to their nearest city with CNG pump?

I drive on the A'bad to Surat stretch very often and there is this particular CNG station on the highway where i notice at any given point of time a que of about 1 kms for cars to get in. SO technically if my drive to surat is completed in 3.5-4 hrs in a Diesel / Petrol car even with a needed fuel stop, the one in CNG car would easily reach 5-5.5 hrs considering the time i would have to wait to get my car filled up.

Recently a cousin was driving to Mt. Abu with some friends in a CNG Swift and they had to wait on a CNG Pump on highway to get it topped up. they wasted 45-50 mins of their journey just to get in and out of the CNG Pump. For those who dont know, the drive from A'bad to Mt. Abu can be covered in approx 3 hrs time.

Source : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Defau...&ViewMode=HTML

[binand]

Originally Posted by R-Six

On a serious note, I'm still wondering the judges who passed the rule really did their homework or not. Were they sure that they have enough natural gas available at their disposal to cater all the four wheelers that are running on the GJ roads?

Judges are not expected to worry about that. That is an implementation detail and is the responsibility of the executive - as long as the judiciary is only interpreting existing laws. In the present instance, the judiciary (as reported by the ToI, usual caveats apply) has clearly told the legislature, "make such and such a law, or else". This is plainly judicial overreach and shouldn't survive an appeal (at the Supreme Court, since this appears to be a full bench of the High Court). In fact, the legislative can simply ignore the HC order and there's nothing the court can do about it.

[troublemaker]

I'm unable to understand this one! Either this is just a 'out of context' mistake by the High Court (which is not that easy to digest) or there is something going on behind the scenes?!

[jeeva]

Not sure if there is something going on behind the scenes, which I don't think the Modi govt will get into.
But the fact is that Rohan-BRC (the most popular LPG/CNG kits) are manufactured and marketed from Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

[ruchir911]

If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. - Louis D. Brandeis

Translating... for his highness, if he (can) read this.

"જો અમે કાયદો માટે આદર ઇચ્છા, અમે પ્રથમ કાયદો આદરણીય બનાવવા જ પડશે." - લુઇસ ડી બ્રેન્ડિસે

[sgiitk]

Now have they moved an iota. Or is it a case of stating, then going to sleep, but not withdrawing the notification. So it becomes the sword of Damocles to be unsheathed at someone's pleasure.