* Buses the worst polluters
Immediate steps have been taken to conduct vehicle emission tests on all vehicles in government institutions, said Environment Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa. He said that a team of Environment Ministry officials will be deployed to inspect these tests. These tests will be initiated from the ministry's own vehicles.
The minister was addressing an awareness programme on "Environment, Vehicle Emission Tests and Air Pollution" for countrywide Traffic and Environment Police Units at Savsiripaya yesterday.
He said that the ministry decided to implement this programme since statistics revealed that the majority of the vehicles which failed the vehicle emission tests belonged to the state sector. The minister said that poor maintenance has led to this result.
Yapa said that a special three day programme was implemented parallel to the Esala Perahera in Kandy from August 10 to 12 with the collaboration of Kandy Traffic police, Motor Traffic Department and Environment Ministry Air Resources Management Unit to conduct emission tests for vehicles entering the city.
A total of 340 vehicles had been tested including 36 State vehicles. Results have revealed that 10 out of 36 had failed the emission test.
A total of 1.88 million vehicles had been tested since the introduction of this test in 2008. This is 78 percent of the total number of vehicles in the country.
Among this number 1.5 million had been petrol vehicles whereas 0.4 million had been diesel vehicles.
About 14.8 percent petrol vehicles and 13.5 percent diesel vehicles had failed the preliminary test.
The statistics revealed that among the petrol vehicles, motor cycles and motor cars had the highest failed percentages.
About 81 percent of vehicles had passed the test the second time. Among the diesel vehicles, buses had recorded the highest failed percentage.
The minister observed that minimal level standards have been imposed for the vehicle emission test certificate and attention is given to lift these standards gradually.
He said that the emission test will be extended to the Northern province shortly.
DIGs Gamini Dissanayake and Lucky Peiris, heads of institutions under the Environment Ministry and Motor Traffic Department also participated.
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