November 9, 2021. Nearly 500 diesel engine boats of around 1,700 plying on the Ganga river in Varanasi, India, will be converted into compressed natural gas (CNG) engine boats by Dev Deepawali falling on November 19. The exercise will help the river get rid of noise and air pollution caused by the diesel engine boats.
General Manager, Varanasi Smart City, D Vasudevam, said 177 of these big and small boats had already been fitted with CNG engines. The work, which started nearly nine months ago, is being done by Gail India Limited under its corporate social responsibility.
There is a daughter station at the ghat itself. A dispenser has also been installed on the jetty. Boatmen say they are covering twice the distance with a CNG engine at half the cost. Tourists are also feeling good as their boat rides have now become pleasant.
A daughter station is the one which is not connected to natural gas pipelines. At these stations, CNG is transported through mobile cascades and then dispensed to vehicles through CNG dispensers.
The CNG-based engine also reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 7% to 11% compared to diesel and petrol engines. Besides, pollution is also reduced due to the absence of gases like sulphur dioxide. When a boat is operated with a diesel engine, toxic fumes are released which is very harmful to the people living nearby whereas this is not the case with CNG.
