Rapid urbanisation and developments in automobile industry has led to rise in number of high-end vehicles even as older two-stroke engines continue to operate, contributing significantly to increase in all air pollutants measured over the last decade.
Hyderabad had 2.45 lakh registered vehicles in 2005 which jumped to 7.11 lakh in 2015. While vehicles of all types, being run on petrol and diesel, increased during the period, a significant percentage increase was observed among high-end personal diesel vehicles and petrol two-wheelers with 125 cc engine capacity; high-end diesel cars, including sedans and SUVs, registered a whopping 1,110 per cent increase while 125 cc two-wheelers increased 10 times.
Authors of a study recently published in Indian Journal of Applied Research, collated vehicular and pollution data from state’s agencies to show significant increase in particulate matter, ammonia and nitrogen dioxide. Particulate matter, which is the biggest concern for environments across the globe, increased eight-fold during 2005-2015. “Larger, mainly of the diesel variant, are significant contributions to air pollution in the city. CNG is a tested technology and immediately government has to enforce its use, particularly for three and four-wheelers,” C.T. Kamala, a scientist at Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, said. “Eventually, the push should be towards running vehicles on renewable sources including solar,” she said.
Big chunk
Data from the State’s Road Transport Authority shows diesel cars in the city, notably of the high-end variant increased from 11 in 2005 to 1,332 in 2015. The biggest absolute rise among diesel vehicles was seen in hatchbacks, which now number more than 38,880 in the city. A big chunk of this growth in the last three years can be attributed to the burgeoning cab industry. According to the RTA, around 600 cabs are added to the city’s registry every year. Though an improvement over engines decade or older, diesel engines of today continue to draw criticism because of the nature of fuel; diesel’s long molecular structure is known to contain more sulphur and nitrogen atoms which pump noxious oxides of sulphur and nitrogen into the atmosphere. Petrol engines on the other hand pump less of these oxides.
Inability exposed
The study also exposed in inability of the Government to weed-out old vehicles. It claimed that seven per cent of the nearly 2.5 lakh autos are petrol-powered 2-stroke engines. Two-stroke engines are out of production and those vehicles running them are more than a decade old. Petrol two-stroke engines have poor fuel-efficiency and tend to release semi-combusted fumes.
“Pollution checks are not part of strong regulation and enforcement here. The Government should seriously consider the pollution record before it renews registrations of vehicles. Older diesel and petrol vehicles should be phased out. If required, the Government should help procuring loans for CNG transport vehicles,” said Indrasen Reddy, Convenor for the not-for-profit Save Rivers.
