NEW DELHI: Nearly half of the roadways buses coming from other states to Delhi cause severe air pollution, a special drive by Delhi government's transport department to check pollution revealed.
The transport department has been carrying out a drive against vehicles that don't have a valid Pollution under Control Certificate (PUCC). As part of the drive, the department is checking state roadways buses coming to Delhi at Inter-State Bus Terminals (ISBT).
On Tuesday, the drive started from Delhi's oldest and one of the busiest ISBTs at Kashmere Gate. Officials of the enforcement wing of the department carried out a pollution check of buses coming from neighbouring states and out of the 50 buses checked on Tuesday, 24 failed to pass the test and were fined. The department has brought in special testing equipment's for this purpose and similar checks would be carried out at the Anand Vihar and Sarai Kale Khan ISBTs.
"We have brought mobile testing equipment's for the special campaign that we are carrying out. We will take strict action against the roadways and a fine of Rs 1,000 and notices have already been sent to them," said KK Dahiya, Special Commissioner (Transport) and managing director, Delhi Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (DTIDC).
Dahiya said that they would not allow the fined buses to enter the ISBT unless they renew their PUCC. "All these buses are diesel run and we found nearly half of them were emitting hazardous fumes," he added.
Most of the polluting buses that were penalised on Tuesday belonged to the Uttar Pradesh Roadways as out of 13 of its buses that were checked, 10 failed to pass the test. Uttarakhand Roadways, on the other hand, had the cleanest record as out of the seven of its buses that were checked, only one was found polluting.
"We carried out the drive at the exit of the ISBT as buses entering the ISBT have heated up engines, which makes detecting pollutants tougher," a transport department official said.
On Tuesday, a team of the Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) led by its chairman Bhure Lal visited the Anand Vihar ISBT, one of the worst polluting regions in the city. Lal and the team from EPCA decide to terminate buses of UP Roadways at the bus terminal across the road from Anand Vihar, which falls in Uttar Pradesh's jurisdiction.
"At Anand Vihar, 900 buses come from other state while 1,650 are local buses. We will discuss the issue with the transport department of UP and work out the modalities regarding decongestion of Anand Vihar ISBT," said Dahiya.
