“The department is still using decade-old criteria for setting emission standards for vehicles running in Kathmandu Valley,” said Deepak Prasad Devkota, mechanical engineer at DoTM, which is under the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management (MoLTM). He said the standards need to be revised. [break]
DoTM is still following emission standards set in 1999. DoLTM, in consultation with the Environment Ministry, had brought in the "Nepal Mass Emission Standard, 2056", also known as Euro-I, to gauge the levels of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emission from vehicles.
The maximum amount of CO emission allowed under Euro-I for petrol vehicles is 3 percent and maximum for HC is 1,000 ppm (parts per million) .
Vehicle test records at the department going back some years show that the minimum standard set for passing the pollution test is very low. More than 99.9 percent of vehicles queuing up at the Transportation Management Department get the sticker for meeting pollution criteria.
“Most of the vehicles tested in our department don´t even reach up to one percent carbon oxide emission,” said Devkota, adding, “There is no point retaining a 10-year-old standard [that allows up to 3 percent emission].”
Similarly, some records at the Transportation Management Department show that vehicles introduced 10 years ago emit just 0.13 percent carbon oxides.
The department conducts emission tests only on vehicles brought into the country after 1998 while tests on vehicles brought in before 1998 are conducted by the traffic police office.
Devkota further added that if the minimum standard is tightened, the pollution level will fall as very old vehicles won´t meet the criteria.
Meanwhile, there is no policy or law to fine people who don´t go for pollution tests about once a year.
“People are careless about pollution tests as the government has not come up with a policy of fines for people who don´t test their vehicles,” he concluded.
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