He was speaking at a meeting organised by the Western India Automobile Association (WIAA) which brought together for the first time, car manufacturers, representatives of the oil industry and car users. The meeting was called to allay the fears of car users following the government's decision to introduce unleaded petrol all over the country from February 2000. Leaded petrol has already been replaced by unleaded petrol in the city from October this year.

``While lead has been taken out of the petrol, benzene hasn't been added, instead we have substituted it with Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE),'' he said, urging motorists to use ULP without hesitation.

``Today, except lead content, all other performance relatedparameters are the same, so there shouldn't be any difference in the performance of vehicles running on unleaded petrol (ULP),'' said Dr YP Rao, senior R & D Manager of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. He was responding to a query as to whether ULP affected the performance of cars that did not have catalytic convertors.

Lead, as in Tetra Ethyl Lead (TEL) was being added to petrol for several decades to boost the octane number of fuel. However, since lead was a carcinogenic, the government decided to phase out its use altogether.The government directed that from April 1, 1996, only cars fitted with catalytic convertors and using unleaded petrol would be sold in the four metros.

Catalytic convertors are special environment friendly devices fitted in the exhausts of vehicles which ensure that they burn off hydrocarbons and minimise the emission of harmful pollutants. Cars fitted with convertors can use only unleaded petrol as the lead in leaded fuel poisons the convertor and irreparably damages it. However,recent studies have shown that older cars which used unleaded fuel without catalytic convertors emitted benzene, which is said to be a worse carcinogen that lead.

Automobile manufacturers have ruled out the retrofitting of catalytic convertors on older cars, saying that it could again irreparably damage the convertor. ``Vehicles which have been using leaded fuel for many years have lead deposits in their engines, when fitted with catalytic convertors, they could poison it and damage it permanently,'' said R Dayal General Manager (QA & Service) of the Delhi-based Maruti Udyog Ltd.

Meanwhile, in a thinly-veiled dig at the car manufacturers, Lal said government policy was always decided by suggestions made by the industry. The car manufacturers could have done the same to suggest better pollution control measures and efficient engines, but they didn't. This arose out of a protected market and the policy of `whatever I can manufacture I can sell.' Lal said that India was already a decade behind the rest ofthe world in introducing pollution control measures. The Motor Vehicles Act was amended to include pollution only a decade ago.

The government had stated that the manufacture of highly polluting two-stroke engines used by two and three wheelers was being banned from April next year.

Significantly, car manufacturer Premier, whose 137D diesel engine has been banned for use by the taxi trade was conspicuous by its absence.