The Mumbai metropolitan region comprises the twin districts of Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban and a large part of neighbouring districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad.
PTI
Mumbai: In a development aimed at green transportation in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the Maharashtra government has formed a committee to look into various ways and means to phase out petrol and diesel from the financial capital of India.
The MMR comprises the twin districts of Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban and a large part of neighbouring districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad.
The seven-member Committee would be headed by retired IAS officer Sudhir Kumar Shrivastava.
The Committee would submit its report in three months’ time.
The Committee has been formed following instructions from the Bombay High Court, which earlier this month expressed deep concern over air pollution in Mumbai and its suburbs.
During the suo moto initiation of a PIL, a division bench comprising Justice DK Upadhyaya, the then Chief Justice and Justice GS Kulkarni suggested a comprehensive study to assess the feasibility of phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles in favour of those powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and electricity.
To tackle industrial pollution, the court ordered the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to expedite a delayed third-party audit of high-pollution "red-category" industries.
The seven-member Committee headed by Shrivastava would include Transport Commissioner, Maharashtra, Additional Director General (Traffic), Maharashtra State, Managing Director, Mahanagar Gas Ltd, Project Director, Maharashtra State Energy Distribution Co Ltd, President, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) and Joint Transport Commissioner (Enforcement-1), who would be the Member-Secretary.
The committee has given powers to include experts in the field as fellow members and get feedback, opinion, advice from them.