The government is striving to bring about development with least disturbance to the environment, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.
Speaking after inaugurating the State’s premier Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fuelling stations at Kalamassery, Aluva and Maradu, on Thursday, he added that high pollution levels and environmental problems in metropolitan cities had become a major health hazard.
Kerala too had begun experiencing the perils of pollution.
It is in this circumstance that CNG is being promoted as a least-polluting alternative for domestic, commercial, and transportation uses.
The CNG stations are part of the city gas distribution project. Currently, 1,000 houses and five commercial firms are getting natural gas under the project. CNG is cheaper than LPG. Adulterants cannot be added to it either. Steps are under way to shift KSRTC buses from diesel to CNG, he said.
Mr. Vijayan also inaugurated Vipinam, IOC’s green venture to encourage people to gift plant saplings instead of bouquets.
CNG bus
Later, Minister for Transport A.K. Saseendran flagged off KSRTC’s first CNG-run bus in the Edapally-Vyttila circular route. The RTC plans to induct another 900 CNG buses, the Minister said.