Spurious LPG kits could be bombs ticking in car!

The family of Ch Anantha Ram, an IT employee, was shocked when their car suddenly blew up into flames just as they entered the Khairatabad flyover a few weeks ago.Luckily, all of them survived the blast unhurt.In a similar case at Begumpet earlier, one N Sudarshan suffered mild burns when a taxi exploded.Both the incidents had a common cause: gas leak from fake LPG kits fitted to the vehicles.The explosions not only reduced the vehicles to ashes but even endangered the lives of the riders, though they had a providential escape.It is now no secret that hundreds of cars and auto-rickshaws equipped with fake and unauthorised Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) kits have been plying freely in the city.However, the substandard equipment started to wilt under intense summer heat leading to various mishaps in the last few days.Taking a serious note of such incidents, the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) has decided to take up a special drive to check use of spurious gas kits.Simultaneously, the department will also educate public on safety measures to follow while using LPG-fitted vehicles.Violators of the norms, be it kit vendors or vehicle owners, will be dealt with severely, transport officials said.“We decided to organise awareness camps on gas conversion kits and asked all authorised gas kit dealers in the city also to do the same before selling kits to customers and after fitting them to vehicles,” said B Venkateswarlu, Joint Commissioner of RTA.As per the RTA data, about 40,000 fourwheelers are plying in the city on authorised LPG kits and over 3,000 autorickshaws are using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).The regional transport officers and inspectors will conduct checks and register cases against violators of LPG use norms.In the case of dealers, their licences will be cancelled.There are about 20 authorised gas conversion kit dealers in the city who sell gas kits for cars and autorickshaws as per the RTA rules and regulations, the official said.According to section 115-C (3) of the Motor Vehicle Act, a number of checks like mass emission test, engine performance test and constant speed fuel consumption test are conducted by a test agency before certifying a conversion kit.The certification has to be renewed after three years.According to officials, many prefer to go for unauthorised gas kits as they come cheap at Rs 7,000 to 9,000 as against the certified kits that cost not less then Rs 15,000, including RTA registration expenses.

By Mouli Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com