Archives

DHAKA, Sunday (AFP)

Bangladeshi official cars will use non-polluting gas within two years and the government is considering extending the rule to all private vehicles, a minister said Saturday. The government is advising that "all petrol and diesel transports in the country... be converted to the compressed natural gas system within two years," State Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Mosharraf Hossain told industrialists.

He said the move was meant to curb chronic air pollution but also to reduce losses on diesel gas and regular petrol, which are imported and sold on subsidy.

Hossain said the government was considering passing a law to require all motorists to switch to compressed natural gas and that all filling stations be converted.

Air pollution, caused mainly by emissions from defective vehicles, is responsible for 5,000 deaths annually in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, a World Bank report said Friday.

Bangladesh is already ordering thousands of three-wheel taxis off the streets by September 1.

Dhaka, which has a population of 10 million, is one of the world's most polluted cities, with the amount of suspended particulate matter in the air more than four times the permissable level, according to government statistics. Hossain also said no decision had been taken on calls by donor countries and foreign oil exploration companies for Bangladesh to start exporting gas.

"We invited foreign companies to drill and explore gas," he said. But "they are advising us to export gas to guarantee their investment return or they would go back."

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager