Getting a Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate for your vehicle may get as easy pulling into a parking lot, with the Delhi government looking at setting up PUC centres at major parking facilities.
“We are narrowing down on a few big parking lots, like multi-level facilities, where we can set up PUC centres,” said Environment and Forest Department Secretary Ashwani Kumar.
In addition, it will soon be mandatory for all petrol and diesel filling stations to have PUC centres. The Transport and Environment Departments will soon issue orders to that effect, according to government officials. Though most petrol pumps have facilities for issuing PUC certificates, the government wants to increase the number of PUC centres from the existing 661.
“The idea is not to impose regulations, but to expand the availability of PUC centres to encourage compliance. Apart from increasing the numbers, we will focus on the quality of services offered at the centres,” said Mr. Kumar.
A senior Transport Department official said the government had noticed manual interference at PUC centres at petrol pumps.
“Issuing PUCs without adherence to emission norms has been noticed at several petrol pumps, with many drivers merely buying these for the sake of escaping a fine with no consideration for the environment,” the official said.
That, however, according to the official, will become a thing of the past with the creation of a new centralised server.
“The seamless connectivity of PUC centres to the central server — which will directly receive the emission data for a particular vehicle when it is being tested for emission — will ensure that a valid PUC will not be printed and issued if the vehicle does not conform to standards,” the official added.
A source said several agencies, including the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, will issue an order for setting up of PUC issuing centres across their respective jurisdictions over the coming days.
Environmental activists, however, are not so convinced that increasing the number of PUC centres will help in cutting down air pollution.
“Just adding more PUC centres will not be enough. Compliance needs to be increased as the level is quite low currently. Also, the standards need to be strengthened,” said Centre for Science and Environment executive director Anumita Roychowdhury.
She added that the emission norms for pre-Bharat Stage-IV vehicles are too weak, so even if the vehicles have valid PUC certificates they end up polluting.
“The standards is something the Centre has to look at, but the State government should make sure there is no corruption in the process and that remote audits are done on the data that PUC centres send to a central database,” said Ms. Roychowdhury.
As the government tries to control air pollution with initiatives like car-free day and an environment compensation charge on commercial vehicles entering Delhi, the number of vehicles continue to go up everyday. As of March 31, 2015, the total number of motor vehicles increased 6.4 per cent from last year to reach 88.27 lakh, according to the Economic Survey of Delhi 2014-2015.
Though most petrol pumps have facilities for issuing PUC certificates, the government wants to increase the number of PUC centres from the existing 661
