The Hindu : Pilot project to check vehicular pollution

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 22, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Pilot project to check vehicular pollution

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD March 21. The 4.5-km stretch from ESI to Khairatabad may well become the ideal corridor with reduced transit time and vehicular pollution with the launch of Sustainable Transportation Pilot Project here on Friday.

The project was designed by the USAID-funded Greenhouse Gas Pollution Prevention Project-Climate Change Supplement (GEP-CCS) for reducing vehicular pollution. If successful, it would be replicated in other corridors.

The chief of the GEP project, Suzanne Young, told newsmen that the project was being implemented for the first time in the country. The traffic police, the MCH, the RTA and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) had been actively coordinating with the project.

John Smith Sreen of the United States Agency for International Development said the USAID had been working in sectors like infrastructure, health, energy and greenhouse gas mitigation in the transport sector.

Mr. Sreen said that quality of environment was the key determinant for the mortality rate. Efficient burning of fuel, travelling at constant speed would reduce pollution, he said.

The Police Commissioner, Krishna Rao, said that automobile-centred life and low priority to public transport was leading to congestion and pollution. At least, 40 to 50 per cent of commuters should switch over to the public transport system to reduce high-density traffic and heavy congestion on the road.

The MCH Additional Commissioner, Ranadir Reddy, said the ESI- Khairatabad corridor was a demonstration project with low cost measures to give immediate results. The measures included reducing conflicting movements, intersection improvements, better pavements and parking lots, signal coordination, signages, lane markings, reflectors, rationalised bus bays and inculcating traffic discipline.

The SIAM representative, Vinay, said that free pollution checks for vehicles at select petrol stations would be taken up for one week. The Joint Commissioner of RTA, C.L.N. Gandhi, explained the measures being taken to reduce congestion and pollution. A EPTRI official, Gayatri Ramachandran, said the project was a great initiative to achieve the aim of clean Hyderabad.

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