With the purpose of decreasing vehicular pollution, the government today decided to implement stricter emission norms. They have planned to move to Bharat Stage (BS) VI from April 1, 2020 and skip BS-V altogether.

The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Nitin Gadkari. The meeting was attended by Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar.

"Government has decided to leapfrog from BS-IV to BS-VI directly by April 1, 2020. We have decided to skip BS-VI emission norms. It is a bold decision and a commitment to environment," Gadkari told PTI after the meeting. All the other ministries have assured cooperation to make the implementation successful, he added.

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The road transport and highways ministry wanted to roll out BS-V emission norms by 2019 but the Petroleum Ministry expressed its inability to comply with the deadline.

Me & my colleagues @PrakashJavdekar, Anant Geete, @dpradhanbjp hve taken a unanimous decision to leap-frog to BS VI directly from 01/04/2020 Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) January 6, 2016

Earlier in November, a draft notification by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoEF), had advanced dates for implementation of BS-V norms to April 1, 2019 and BS-VI norms to April 1, 2021.

At present, BS-IV auto fuels are being supplied in whole of northern India covering J&K, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, parts of Rajasthan and western UP. The rest of the country has BS-III grade fuel.

With inputs from PTI