Call to overhaul vehicle PUC system

The Times of India , Thursday, November 19, 2015
Correspondent : Radheshyam Jadhav
PUNE: Fixing the manufacturers' responsibility for the emission performance of their products is the most effective way to curb vehicular pollution, not on-road tests.

New Delhi's research group Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) made this observation.

Following the Volkswagen incident, experts fear the investment in emission control system in vehicles to meet tighter standards can go waste and negate air pollution control efforts in Indian cities without a robust system for monitoring emission compliance. The carmaker's popular diesel cars were allegedly fitted with 'defeat devices' to trick the official emission tests.

"This matter went nearly unnoticed in India except the usual investigation to check if the fraud has happened in India too. But the technical ingenuity of the Volkswagen corporate fraud has exposed weakness and gaps in the emission regulations in India. This makes India extremely vulnerable because it is 'motorising' and 'dieselising' rapidly without the right regulations and compliance framework for manufacturers," said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, the executive director of CSE.

Vehicular pollution is a serious public health issue in India, where air pollution has emerged as the fifth largest killer. "Vehicles are responsible for very high exposure to toxic pollution in cities. Monitoring of emission from diesel vehicles is particularly weak. If the emission control system in modern diesel vehicles does not work, it can lead to uncontrolled emission of killer toxic particulates and nitrogen oxides. The pollution under control (PUC) system needs overhaul. The current PUC norms for diesel cars are too lenient to fail any vehicle. They can't check tiny particles and NOx - the key killers in the Indian cities," CSE stated in a note issued after its recent deliberations and workshop on the urban air quality.

In Pune, where air pollution has emerged as one of the biggest problems. Sharing his on-road bitter experience, Himanshu Patil said, "Every day after I travel from Hadapsar to my Fergusson College Road office, I clean face with a facial tissue. It gets smeared with thick black layer in one go. And I know, I am inhaling all types of pollutants which are invisible."

Unlike the popular notion, commercial vehicles are not the lone offenders. And people are aware of it.

"Just six-seaters and autorickshaws do not emit dark clouds of smoke. Even cars release black smoke. It has become difficult to breathe. Imagine what must be happening to our kids," said homemaker Ambika, who daily travels on Satara Road.

Yet, getting a PUC certificate in the city is a cakewalk. Shivam Nair, a professional, said, "Getting a PUC certificate is easy. There are PUC centres with machinery fitted in cars. They issue certificates without even testing vehicles. This is mockery of the entire system."

Against this backdrop, CSE has raised question over the PUC's efficiency itself. The current practice of PUC is rudimentary and ineffective to address complex emission control systems in new vehicles. It cannot screen inherent technical flaws and frauds for which manufacturers are responsible and compromise with the emission performance in the real world, observed the research group CSE.

Experts claimed that the PUC system to check emission of on-road vehicles in India was extremely weak in terms of lax norms, poor enforcement and poor quality test procedures. The PUC norms were extremely lax for the older pre-Bharat Stage IV vehicles. While petrol cars were tested for carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons along with lambda under PUC, while the diesel vehicles are tested only for smoke density.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Call-to-overhaul-vehicle-PUC-system/articleshow/49837783.cms
 


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