In the financial year 2009-10 and 2010-11 as many as 49,178 methane powered vehicles were added. “Car owners prefer natural gas as compared to diesel because of the frequent hike in the petrol prices. Besides, awareness about pollution and green fuels is also increasing among the people,” said Jyotish Bhatt, from Ahmedabad’s RTO.
Amit Upadhyay of Dahison Automobiles stated Ahmedabad experiences a boom in the conversion of city cars as with CNG, drivers are able to save up to 65 per cent. “We also get inquiries from rural areas, but there should be more outlets and refilling stations,” he said.
In addition, vice-president of Kothari Automobiles Manish Dave remarked the importance of premium segment cars, which are also being converted. “Earlier, it was just the small cars that switched to CNG, but now people with high-end brands are queuing up to convert. In a year, dealers fitting CNG conversion kits have seen up to 50 per cent more bookings. We convert 35 cars a day against 20 cars a day earlier,” said Dave.
