India: Heavy-duty: Emissions

Overview

 * Standard type: Conventional pollutant emission limits
 * Regulating bodies: Further detail regarding India's regulatory bodies can be found on the India Regulatory Background page
 * Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
 * Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG)
 * Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF)
 * Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH)
 * Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
 * Current standard: Bharat III nationwide, Bharat IV in select cities (Standards run parallel to Euro standards)
 * Applicability: Vehicles of Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) > 3,500 kg including commercial trucks, buses, and on-road vocational vehicles such as refuse haulers and cement mixers

History
Starting with court rulings in the late 1980s and 1990s, India began to lower its permissible vehicular pollution emission limits for four-wheelers. Beginning in 2000, India followed the ‘Euro’ path - adopting parallel "Bharat" standards (e.g. Bharat III standards are equivalent to Euro III standards). New vehicles sold in 13 advanced Indian cities must meet Bharat IV (Euro IV) standards while the rest of the country mandates Bharat III standards. In practice, since almost all heavy-duty trucks are registered outside of the major cities, the Bharat IV standards apply primarily to urban buses.

Important legislative milestones include:
 * The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 gave government the right to regulate motor vehicle emissions.
 * The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 established vehicular emission standards and authorized the central and the state governments to further regulate and enforce them.

The Auto Fuel Policy of 2003 set a roadmap for progressively tighter heavy-duty vehicle emission standards through 2010, which is currently still in force. This policy aligned Indian emission standards with the European model.

The Auto Fuel Policy of 2003 also laid out two different sets of standards, one for advanced cities and one for the rest of the country. In the case of heavy duty vehicles, this incongruity has resulted in few trucks meeting the tougher emissions standards of advanced cities, since they are sold and registered in outside areas.

The following table shows the advanced adoption timeline of India's main cities.

HDV Emissions Standards Advanced Adoption Timeline of India's Main Cities Notes: a - Oct 24, 2000 for Delhi, Oct 21, 2001 for Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai b - Jan 1, 2012 for Puducherry and Mathura, Feb 1, 2012 for Vapi and Jamnagar, Mar 1, 2012 for Ankleshwar, Mar 16, 2012 for Hissar and Bharatpur

Emission Standards
Prior to 2010, emissions were tested using the ECE R49 test cycle. After 2010, for Bharat III and IV, the ESC and ETC test cycles were used. Emission standards for new heavy-duty engines are listed below.

Testing
Heavy-duty vehicle emissions are certified in two phases. First, the engine (including the emission control system) is tested on an engine dynamometer. Then the vehicle impacts are incorporated by reference, which requires using other test data and engineering judgment to establish how the remainder of the vehicle’s components would impact engine emissions. Engine emission limits are set in grams/kilowatt-hour.

Unlike Indian light duty vehicles, which are tested using chassis dynamometer testing, heavy-duty vehicle emissions are certified in two cycles: the European Stationary Cycle (ESC) and the European Transient Cycle (ETC). Diesel-operated HDVs must pass both tests to be certified. HDVs operating on CNG do not have to undergo the ESC test.

Test Fuels

Under Bharat III and IV specifications, fuel used to test emissions from vehicles is cleaner than commercially available fuel. Regulations specify that Bharat IV test diesel can have a maximum sulfur concentration of 10 ppm while commercial diesel contains up to 50 ppm and 350 ppm sulfur in Bharat IV cities and the rest of the country, respectively. The lower sulfur in testing fuel means emissions measurements during testing are lower than real-world emissions on the road, particularly for PM. The full diesel and petrol specifications for test fuels may be found in the ARAI Indian Emission Regulation Booklet.

Regulatory documents

 * Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981


 * Environment (Protection) Act, 1986


 * Motor Vehicles Act, 1988