Govt allow tractors, power tillers & earth movers to ply on two fuels

NEW DELHI: Now diesel-guzzling agriculture tractors, power tillers, construction equipment vehicles such as earth movers and combine harvesters can run on dual fuel - diesel as primary fuel and CNG, bio-CNG or LNG as a secondary fuel. The road transport ministry has notified the emission norms for such new and retrofitted engines, which it said will reduce vehicular pollution.


Bi-fuel vehicles are the ones that can run on two or multiple fuels. On internal combustion engines, one fuel is diesel, and the other is CNG, LNG or Bio-CNG. The two fuels are stored in separate tanks and the engine runs on one fuel at a time. In some other cases, both fuels are used in unison. These vehicles have the capability to switch back and forth from diesel to the other fuel, manually or automatically.

“The government permitting the use of dual fuel in such vehicles will also bring down the operating cost and will prove beneficial,” said a ministry official. However, the real catch is the availability of these alternate fuel in areas where these agriculture vehicles operate. At present, CNG, Bio-CNG and LNG are available only in and around the large cities and it won’t be economically viable for such vehicle owners to drive them for kilometres to get the alternate fuel.