Buoyed with the success of the 1800 ISZ Ambassador model with CNG, the company is pushing the car "that's clean and green which uses the eco-friendly fuel ideal for city driving".

Hindustan Motors is confident that more and more people will consider the CNG option while choosing a vehicle. According to a Supreme Court judgement all pre-1990 vehicles will have to be replaced with new vehicles on clean fuel effective March 21, 2000. The CNG as a fuel option in cars is available only in the Capital at present.

Since CNG is currently not available extensively, Hindustan Motors has designed the Ambassador 1800 ISZ CNG to run on both CNG as well as petrol. The Ambassador 1800 ISZ can run both on CNG and petrol, and either option can be used by a simple switch in thedashboard of the car.

It may be pointed out that the government has set up a committee to study the adoption of alternative fuels -- LPG, in vehicles. Other companies including Hyundai Motor India are also planning to introduce Santro fitted with an LPG cylinder.

According to the company, the running cost with CNG is only Rs 1.10 per km as against Rs 2.11 per km of petrol, based on current fuel prices and mileage of 10 km/litre with air conditioning.

The Ambassador is best suited for conversion because of its large boot space. The cost of the Ambassador 1800 ISZ with CNG is around Rs 3.40 lakh, slightly more than the petrol version.

R Santhanam, executive director, HM said: "In today's scenario, when pollution is on the rise, CNG is the most eco-friendly fuel. It has the lowest emissions of toxic gases, lowest air pollution, low noise levels and negligible evaporative losses of fuel".

Moreover, he added, not only are CNG-driven vehicles safer to drive because of lower inflammability as againstpetrol, as well as are a cheaper alternative to petrol or diesel run vehicles.

The company claims CNG as a fuel enable lower oil consumption, thereby reducing maintenance effort and extending engine life. To house the CNG cylinder, the trunk compartment of the car has been redesigned whereby the boot space has been increased.

Normally, CNG is associated with loss in engine power. However, in the Ambassador 1800 ISZ, the drop is negligible, the company claimed.