Diesel - 29 pc, petrol - 23 pc fail eco test:

Govt vehicles contribute to air pollution

Disna MUDALIGE

Twenty nine percent of diesel vehicles and 23 percent of petrol vehicles in government institutions have failed the vehicle emission test, a spokesperson for the Environment Ministry told the Daily News yesterday.

She observed that under the direction of Environment Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, a special programme has been implemented to conduct the vehicle emission test for the vehicles in government institutions.

She said that accordingly 148 vehicles of the Ministries of Ports and Highway, Culture and Arts Affairs, Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities, National Heritages, Economic Development, Transport, National Physical Planning Department and Road Development Authority had been checked for emission levels during the past few months.

She said that checked vehicles included 69 diesel and 79 petrol vehicles. Among the diesel vehicles 29 percent had failed and among the petrol vehicles 23 percent had failed the emission test. She noted that percentage wise the highest failed percentage for diesel vehicles was in the Culture and Arts Affairs Ministry (56 percent), and the highest failed percentage for petrol vehicles was in the Road Development Authority (25 percent).

She also noted that all the vehicles checked for the emission levels in the Economic Development Ministry passed the test. She also observed that the results depict that the vehicles in government institutions have contributed largely for air pollution and special attention should be placed for proper maintenance of those vehicles.

These tests have been conducted by the Environment Ministry Air Resource Management Centre with the collaboration of the Motor Traffic Department and Automobile Engineering Training Institute.

She said that the programme would be carried out in other government institutions too in the near future.