Eco-friendly buses on Pune roads soon
Gigil Varghese
Mumbai
THERE MAY soon be an environment-friendly solution to the ageing fleet of
diesel-run vehicles.
National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) is working on
a pilot project in which 20 diesel-run buses of Pune Municipal Transport
(PMT) will be retrofitted with devices to reduce the emission of particulate
matter.
Typically, diesel retrofit involves the addition of an emission control
device to remove emissions from the engine exhaust.
The project has been undertaken in collaboration with United States Aid for
International Development (USAID) and United States Trade and Development
Agency (USTDA). The Rs 1.7 crore-project, funded by USAID, is being
conducted in two phases. The work of monitoring the air quality began in
April this year. The second phase of fitting the vehicles with pollution
control devices will begin next week. After retrofitting the 20 buses, a
study would be conducted to measure the change in release of emissions. The
entire process will take 18 months.
The study is a part of the memorandum of understanding, which the ministry
of environment and forest had signed two years ago with the United States,
Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) to work towards reducing air
pollution.
Dr Rakesh Kumar, Scientist and Head, Mumbai Zonal Center, NEERI, said: “In
India there is no fool-proof method of scrapping old diesel-run vehicles.
Scrapping is not the ideal solution. Neither is converting to CNG, as these
vehicles incur high maintenance cost,” said Kumar. “A combination of
technology needs to used to curb pollution,” he added.
Pune will be the first city in the country to have retrofitted buses. “We
are very happy that Pune was chosen as the city for pilot project as air
pollution levels in the city are dangerously high,” said PMT public
relations officer, Deepak Pardeshi.
If the project is successful in reducing air pollution, then a policy will
be framed with norms for diesel-run vehicles.
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