Chandigarh to crack down on polluting vehicles

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 9

In yet another step towards reducing pollution in the city, the Administration will launch a crackdown on polluting vehicles entering the UT.

Air quality improves at Transport Chowk

To further improve air quality in the city, an air purifier was commissioned at Transport Chowk last month on a pilot basis. An official of the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee said the air quality around the Transport Chowk had improved considerably after the installation of the purifier. It was found that air pollution at and around the chowk came down up to 80 per cent, but they were expecting that on an average, air pollution would reduce from 60-70 per cent in the area.

The Environment Standing Committee of the Administrator’s Advisory Council has suggested that the police must intercept polluting buses entering the city from other states and inform the State Transport Authority about the same.

In the Action Taken Report submitted during a review of the Advisory Council, the Administration has stated that two joint teams of the Traffic Police and the Transport Department would be constituted to carry out a special drive against the polluting vehicles entering the city. Strict action would be taken against such vehicles. So far, the authorities have issued a total 185 pollution challans and 529 notices to the violators from January 1 to September 30 this year.

Three real-time ambient air quality monitoring stations have been installed by the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee at Sector 25, 22 and 53.

To further reduce air pollution, from the first lot of 40 electric buses, 19 will be received by November 15 and 20 more will be received by December 30.

As many as 80 electric buses have been sanctioned under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) India Scheme, Phase-II, for the UT. A bus has reached here for trial run.

The procurement of another 40 electric buses is under process and these are expected to be received next year, stated the Action Taken Report. The Transport Department has planned to replace all its 358 diesel buses in the city with electric buses by 2027-28.

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