Spice Gas Pvt Ltd, a Spice Group company, on Wednesday signed an agreement with the West Bengal government to roll out 17 LPG depots in the state which will help 60,000 auto rickshaws convert to LPG.

In fact, the company is going to use the Kolkata experience to make a pitch for bringing the entire Indian automobile sector under the ambit of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). It has already approached the Pune-based Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) for clearance, but there’s a huge debate on whether LPG can be used to run all vehicles. Chauhan said according to Central Motor Vehicles rules there can be no third party conversion of diesel vehicles to LPG except for auto rickshaws. ?We are trying to bring about an amendment to the law so that third party conversion is allowed,? Chauhan said.

While in Delhi and Mumbai, auto rickshaws have substituted diesel with compressed natural gas (CNG), in Kolkata it is going to be LPG.

Raman Chauhan, chief executive officer, said the company is going to make Kolkata a test case “to prove that LPG can be the ideal fuel for all categories of vehicles in the country”.

At present only auto rickshaws are allowed to use LPG kits with 800 LPG stations across the country serving it. But f the 800 LPG stations, there are only 15 LPG stations in Delhi and 12 LPG stations in Mumbai.

Kingshuk Ghoshal, vice president, marketing and advisory, said Spice Gas has tied up with Southern CNG Automobile India Pvt Ltd, a counterpart of Italian Tantarinis that makes LPG kits. It has given Tantarinis kit to ARAI for testing on buses.

Simultaneously, Hindustan Motors, as a first party designer, will fit LPG kits in five buses owned by Modern High School, which will be on test runs to make a case for converting diesel buses to LPG, Chauhan said.

He said the company is first setting its eyes on 60,000 auto rickshaws plying on the roads of Kolkata for conversion before targeting other vehicles.

The West Bengal government has allotted space via bidding route to Spice Gas to set up LPG outlets in three government run bus depots, with each outlet having a capacity to supply 20,000 litres per day.

The company is creating a dealers network to roll out another 14 LPG outlets in Salt Lake, Barrackpore, Joka and Garia.