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Natgas-powered taxis to debut in Abu Dhabi
Compressed natural gas-powered (CNG) taxis will hit the roads of Abu Dhabi soon, a statement said.
- Staff Report
- Published: 00:00 January 29, 2007
Dubai: Compressed natural gas-powered (CNG) taxis will hit the roads of Abu Dhabi soon, a statement said.
"Q Link, a subsidiary of Al Qudra Holding and International Energy Group (IEG), will be introducing the first 'green' fleet in the UAE this year," the statement said.
IEG is a subsidiary of the UAE business conglomerate S.S. Lootah Group.
"Q Link represents Al Qudra Holding's vision of environmental stewardship, our new eco-friendly fleet of taxis serving Abu Dhabi and the UAE will be operating this year," announced Khalifa Khoury, Q Link chairman.
"We will convert the Q Link fleet to compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternate fuel," said Zeyad Al Majed, General Manager of IEG, the region's first international energy alliance to promote advanced energy technologies.
"Al Qudra Holding has a great vision and we are glad to join hands with its subsidiaries to power national growth and build a sustainable future in Abu Dhabi using clean transportation technologies" he added.
One of the key benefits of using CNG is that oil and gas companies will realise higher profits from natural gas as a clean fuel for transportation than industrial and utility customers and they will also reduce their losses from subsidised petrol.
"The benefits of conversion to CNG as a clean transportation fuel has a lot of virtues to its credit," said Hadi Tahboub, Q Link general manager.
"Fleet operators can benefit from a reduced fuel cost of 30 to 40 per cent at least and the quality of air will be improved dramatically, since 80 per cent of air pollution in the UAE is caused by vehicle emissions and CNG reduces emissions dramatically," he added.
The challenges of commercialising CNG for transportation fuel are gas supply, gas distribution infrastructure, culture change and government policies.
The infrastructure that allows the utilisation of CNG commercially in the UAE is slowly coming together.
"We have one fuelling station in Abu Dhabi at the moment and we hope that in the coming few years more CNG fuelling stations will be built," said Al Majed.
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