Thiruvananthapuram: The Union government has given an assurance to the state government that they would support the state in the case against the green tribunal verdict on diesel vehicles. This assurance was given to transport minister A.K. Saseendran by Union minister of road transport and highway Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on Saturday.
Mr Saseendran told reporters after the meeting that the union government had also given assurance that they would provide support to the state to change over public transport system to CNG. Mr Saseendran said that the state government was not in a position to change vehicles in the public transport system from diesel to other alternative fuels in such a short span of time.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) verdict which was stayed by the Supreme Court had only given one time order to remove light and heavy diesel vehicles, which are more than 10 years old in six major cities of the state Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kannur.
At present, no company manufactured petrol vehicles for the public transport system. Though there are some alternatives for diesel in public transport like CNG, there are not enough people in the state who have a technical know-how of CNG technology.
