Delhi government's plan to curb vehicular emissions

The Delhi government in a letter to the Union ministry of road transport and highways (mrth) has suggested an improved inspection and maintenance programme for vehicles in use in the capital. The plan envisages more stringent emission norms.

Pointing out that the mrth regulations are too lax, the city government has recommended a permissible limit of 600-700 parts per million (ppm) for hydrocarbons (hc) in the case of vehicles without converters and 100-200 ppm for cars with converters. Further, passenger cars equipped with catalytic converters and manufactured after 2000 should adhere to a 0.5 per cent carbon monoxide (co) level.

The mrth has been urged to use 4-gas analysers (co, co₂, hc, o₂) to check emission levels of petrol vehicles, and conduct the lambda test (to measure air/fuel ratio) for petrol vehicles with catalytic converters. High idle measurement and calculation of lambda are needed to verify the converter is working under moderate engine load. This would help in detecting any leakage in the exhaust pipe, and ensure that the measurement is being carried out in an acceptable manner. The Delhi government feels that co norms of 3 per cent are too lenient as compared to 0.5 per cent in the us, especially when all buses must be equipped with a cata-lytic converter.

It has proposed that the pollution under control centres which dot the capital should be phased out, since they make control and supervision difficult. These need to be replaced by fewer centralised but bigger units capable of testing a large number of vehicles simultaneously.

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