'Multidisciplinary approach needed to tackle pollution'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, NOV. 28. As the population and number of vehicles burgeoned unbridled in the City, vehicular emissions are playing havoc with the health of the public, according to studies. Allergies and conditions such as asthma and cardio-vascular diseases are common in the City, while long- and short-term measures to minimise them are woefully lacking.

A seminar on ``An integrated approach for control of number of vehicles'' organised by the newly-formed Task Force on Control of Vehicular Pollution and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) here on Wednesday focussed on the strategies to address these problems, and concluded that a multidisciplinary approach encompassing the sources of pollution, be it automobiles, industry or domestic, should be adopted to tackle the problem.

The Minister for Transport, Mr. C.R.Sagir Ahmed, who inaugurated the seminar, said the Government had initiated several measures to improve the ambient air quality in the City, and it was examining whether diesel with low benzene content, which was being used in Delhi, could be introduced here.

Whether Mumbai could be emulated to implement a ``pollution under control'' (PUC) policy to encourage people to maintain their vehicles and reduce emissions was being contemplated.

The 18 depots of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) would soon have emission testing centres, which could be used by private vehicle owners for checking pollution levels, he announced on the occasion.

He noted with satisfaction that many measures initiated over the last couple of years had been effective in controlling the number of vehicles. A slew of public interest litigations in the Karnataka High Court were decided in favour of the Government after the action-taken reports submitted by it were accepted by the court as evidence of its commitment to bring pollution under control, he said.

Dr. A.Ravindra, Additional Chief Secretary and Chairman of the task force, set the tone of the deliberations by pointing out that Bangalore's population of 5.6 million, as per the Census 2001, used over 15 lakh vehicles. That made it an average of one vehicle per five persons.

While conceding that measures initiated so far to minimise air pollution were inadequate, he said the task force would draft a strategy on the premise that there were statistics and targets to work for.

Bangalore's drawbacks included inadequate public transport system, and unlike the metros such as Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai, its geographical positioning posed problems that required different ways of tackling, Dr. Ravindra said.

He felt the emphasis should be on setting up comprehensive, computerised air-quality monitoring systems, including online ones, so that time was not wasted between taking readings, making calculations, and coming to conclusions.The State Transport Commissioner, Mr. Thimme Gowda, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board Chairman, Mr. Upendra Tripathy, and others attended the seminar which was directed at the officials of the board, the BMTC, the Transport Department, and other agencies.

Along with the SIAM, the Society for Automotive Fitness and Environment (SAFE) assured the Government of cooperation and assistance to help control vehicular emission. SIAM is the apex body of leading vehicle and vehicular engine manufacturers in the country. SAFE has been incorporated by SIAM as an independent body to focus on issues relating to emission from in-use vehicles and safety.

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