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| A vehicle at a pollution testing centre in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati |
Bhubaneswar, March 25: The transport authorities here seem to be least bothered about taking action on vehicles emitting poisonous fumes or creating awareness on the dangers of such emissions.
There are just five devices to scan emission levels of vehicles in a city that has around 6.5 lakh vehicles. Only two of these devices are with the Regional Transport Office (RTO). Three are installed at private petrol pumps.
Of the two that the RTO has, the Driving Test Centre at Chandrasekharpur uses one. The other is mounted on a vehicle that makes rounds of the city. According to Section 190 of the Odisha Motor Vehicle Act, all vehicles, including two wheelers, need to obtain pollution under control (PUC) certificates every six months. Sources in the RTO said that while most of the commercial vehicles comply with tests to get fitness certificates, most petrol-run two wheelers and cars do not.
They said the motor vehicles department penalises around 400 violators every month for not having PUC. The penalty for not having a PUC is Rs 500. Of the total number of vehicles in the city, 72 per cent are two wheelers.
The three private testing centres operating from petrol pumps in the city are located in Pahala, Chandrasekharpur and Unit-II.
These conduct emission tests of around 100 vehicles every day. The test centres charge Rs 40 and Rs 60 for emission tests of two wheelers and cars, respectively. A commercial vehicle has to pay Rs 100 for an emission test.
Sanjay Lath, owner of a fuel service station in the city, said very few diesel-run commercial vehicles came to the testing centres. “There should be frequent awareness drives in the city so that people understand the need for such tests,” said Lath, who also runs a pollution test centre in the city.
“If wearing helmets can be made mandatory, why not pollution check of vehicles? The city is expanding and vehicles are increasing. So, vehicular pollution has emerged as a major concern,” said environmentalist Bijay Mishra.
