An effort launched four years ago to cleanse the city’s air of some of its poison fume has been given a silent burial.

The 60-odd LPG-run taxis that hit the road with fanfare in 2005 have all been allowed to switch to diesel apparently because there are not enough refilling stations in the city.

“Not a single LPG taxi now plies in the Calcutta Metropolitan Area,” said an official in the public vehicles department. “A few months ago, the owners of the LPG taxis had asked for permission to switch to diesel as there are not enough refilling stations. All were allowed to convert.”

Back in 2005, the city had just two LPG stations. The figure has since gone up to nine in the city proper and 15 in what is loosely called Greater Calcutta.

“Even the few LPG pumps that have been set up do not provide round-the-clock service. Before buying the green taxi I thought the government would take all steps to ensure successful implementation of the project. But I was mistaken,” said Radhanath Shaw, a resident of Milk Colony.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), however, denied that refilling stations were too few to fuel the green cab fleet. Abhijit Dey, the regional manager (LPG) of IOC, said the existing stations were registering only 50 per cent utilisation.

When the project was launched, 38 green cars rolled out of the Hindustan Motors factory, of which 18 were procured by the state transport department. Moloy Choudhury, the executive vice-president of the company, said: “We did not produce more than 60 LPG taxis.”

Officials in the transport department said the green cabs were part of a pilot project aimed at replacing all diesel taxis with LPG ones. “The idea was to implement what had happened in New Delhi where all taxis converted to CNG,” said an official.

The government had announced that permits would be issued only to LPG cabs. Existing taxis would have to switch to the green fuel before applying for renewal of permits. To encourage conversion to LPG, the transport department had waived a year’s road tax and also the conversion fee of Rs 100. A discount of Rs 50,000 was announced for the first 100 buyers of green taxis.

“For all its sops, the government had ignored the key to the success of the drive,” said Bimal Guha, the secretary of the Bengal Taxi Association. “What we needed the most was an effective LPG distribution network.”

Transport minister Ranjit Kundu took the familiar we-will-look-into-it-now route. “There must have been some infrastructure problems. Now we are trying to open as many LPG pumps as possible.”

Green activist Subhash Dutta wasn’t surprised. “When it comes to air pollution, the government has launched several pilot projects but failed to follow up on them. So what else can one expect?”