The Energy and Mineral Resources Division has taken an initiative to conduct a survey on the fuel use of public transports with the Hydrocarbon Unit being instructed to do the job, an official said.
The number of registered motor vehicles in the country is 49 lakh 71 thousand 535. Although 20 types of motor vehicles run on private, passenger and freight vehicles, the government has no account of which vehicles run on which fuel. As a result, it is becoming difficult to formulate energy plans. That is why such an initiative has been taken.
The Energy Division official said that the fare of diesel-run public transport has recently increased due to a hike of fuel prices. However, the CNG-powered bus owners also increased fares, which is totally illegal. Passengers and bus owners have taken conflicting positions on this. While mobile courts are conducting operations, passengers are also suffering.
A parliamentary body on November 22, asked for accurate information on the type and amount of fuel used in public transports.
The parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources asked the ministry concerned to conduct a survey in this regard. The committee thinks this is necessary as there should be accurate statistics on CNG-run, diesel-run, and petrol or octane-run public transport and vehicles.
Dr. Md. Rafiqul Islam, Director General of the Hydrocarbon Unit raised the issue at a recent meeting of the Energy Division and proposed to conduct a survey in this regard. Anisur Rahman, Senior Secretary of the Energy Division has directed the Hydrocarbon Unit to conduct a survey and submit a report immediately.
An official of the Energy Division said that along with diesel, CNG, petrol, octane, auto gas and electricity are also being used in motor vehicles. Some petrol and octane powered cars are converting to auto gas thinking of saving fuel. Again, the vehicles that can run on CNG are also being converted to auto gas. The government is thinking of expanding auto gas extensively across the country. Meanwhile, government and non-governmental organizations are constructing auto gas stations in the country. As a result, the type of fuel consumption is changing.
Although the government has emphasized on the use of electric vehicles to reduce carbon emissions, the country has not yet developed the infrastructure to use electric vehicles. If this sector is developed in the future, the use of fuel in vehicles will also change drastically. Because its fuel cost is lower than fossil fuel.