Beside industrialization, road transportation contributes a fair share to the menace of environmental pollution. Although authorities try to keep vehicle induced pollution in check, the lack of pollution testing centers makes the task quite difficult.
To mitigate the problem and keep pollution under control, Bihar’s transport department has launched a moving pollution testing van facility to deliver pollution under control (PUC) certificates on the vehicle owner’s doorstep.
After the implementation of the new Motors Vehicles Act, the penalty for violating PUC norms increased to Rs 10,000 and with that increased the number of certificate seekers at pollution testing centers.
Representational Image: Hindustan Times
According to a report by the state transport department, there are 500 such centers in total to check vehicle pollution, whereas the capital Patna has 98 such centers.
For a state like Bihar, the capital of which Patna is the seventh most polluted city in the world – as per a recent Greenpeace report – the number of 500 vehicle check pollution centers seems unfit and insufficient. Therefore, the transport department of the state launched a new facility which would provide PUC certificate to vehicle owners on their doorsteps.
A trial of this mobile van facility was conducted at the Patna secretariat on September 18 and it will be soon launched throughout the state, fully functional with the launch of a toll-free number.
We are in the process of launching a toll-free number. Once it starts functioning, the mobile van service will be operational too.
said Sanjay Agarwal, secretary, state transport department.
Vehicle owners will then be able to call the van to their homes by dialing the toll-free number and get the PUC certificate issued on the spot within few minutes.
He added.
Initially, 10 such vans will be put into service in Patna and consequently in other districts as well. The department has plans to open 150 more vehicle pollution check centers in the state.
Via: DownToEarth