‘PUC certificates don’t cover major pollutants’

The pollution under control (PUC) certificates issued in India to ensure reduction in vehicular emissions has no checks for harmful and key vehicular pollutants. Air pollution researchers highlighted this issue during a public consultation to strengthen Mumbai’s clean air action plan on Tuesday.

PUC certificate indicates that a vehicle’s emissions are aligned with standard pollution norms and do not harm the environment. However, the transport department presently only measures the percentage of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (in parts per million), and has no checks for other key pollutants like particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NOx).

“Tail pipe emissions are known to contribute 30% to overall air pollution in major cities like Mumbai,” said Ronak Sutaria, founder and director, UrbanSciences, an independent air quality monitoring group. “There is a need to upgrade infrastructure to ensure right pollutants are measured, especially for heavy vehicles which manage to get low-cost certificates, adding to the pollution woes of a city.”

The cost for PUC test varies from ₹60 to ₹100 based on the vehicle and its fuel type.

Ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) admitted that PM and NOx levels from vehicular exhaust are not checked as the equipment is costly. “The PUC regime has been developed keeping in mind citizen’s convenience to acquire PUC certificates at a low cost. While the technology is available for testing pollutants like PM and NOx, it is not cost-effective,” said Priyank Bharti, joint secretary, MoRTH. “The ministry, however, is open to suggestions or proposals on cost-effective technology to test these pollutants too, as an overall measure to reduce vehicular pollution.”

Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) said they had flagged the issue before the state transport department. Sudhir Srivastava, chairman, MPCB, said, “We have requested the transport department to take action on the PUC method, overall model, and feasibility of checking on road tail pipe emissions, which will further enhance efforts to reduce vehicular emission under our city action plans.”

PM and NOx have been identified as key pollutants that need to be addressed for vehicular emission under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) as well as city-based action plans. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, Netherlands and Japan issue PUC certificates based on testing four pollutants – CO, hydrocarbons, PM and NOx.

Experts pointed out that with the upcoming Bharat Stage VI norms, which are to be effective from April 2020, there was a need to revamp the existing PUC certification system. “PUC is irrelevant for BSVI vehicles. For this, there needs to be a paradigm shift with technology in the form of remote sensing, which can measure tail pipe emissions for key pollutants even as vehicles are moving. We need huge preparedness and training for our regional transport offices to adjust to new systems as BSVI gets implemented,” said Anumita Roy Choudhury, executive director, Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi.

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s public consultation etched out detailed sector-wise recommendations to enhance Mumbai’s existing action plan, which will be submitted to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, MPCB and the Central Pollution Control Board.

“These recommendations are valuable for us, and if some of the action points are feasible and may yield results, we will definitely consider them,” said Srivastava.