Our Bureau

Pune, April 11: BAJAJ Tempo Ltd will be launching its Minidor three-wheelers running on CNG during next month. The CNG versions of Trax and Tempo Traveller, too, will be available in the market. These vehicles are being targeted at the Delhi and Goa markets. “The price of the CNG Minidors will only be marginally higher than the diesel version,” company chairman and managing director (CMD) Abhay Firodia said. Mr Firodia said the Minidor was positioned as a low cost public transport vehicle in the market but the product was up against ‘vested interests’.

There is a gap in public transport and this six-seater Minidors were an ideal vehicle to meet the public transportation requirements in smaller cities, towns and even rural areas, Mr Firodia said. However, public transport organisations and the three-wheeler autorickshaw market have been resisting the entry of Minidors and some of the aggrieved parties have gone to court to enforce restrictions on the plying of the Minidor.

Mr Firodia questioned the artificial hurdles being implanted in passenger transport segment while no such problems existed when it came to goods transportation. “Allow all vehicles to compete freely and let the best system be chosen by the public,” he said. Refuting charges of the six-seater being a source of pollution, Mr Firodia said the Minidor was a Euro-II compliant vehicle.

He attributed adulteration of fuel and used of other cheaper fuels by operators as the cause for higher emission.