Guidelines to be set up for emission tests

JAKARTA (JP): The administration is to set up guidelines on vehicle emission tests in Jakarta, according to the head of the city's environmental bureau, Aboejoewono Aboeprajitno.

A special team involving staff from the city's Environmental Bureau, Environmental Control and Management Agency, Land Transportation Agency and Police Headquarters has already been formed to collect ideas for the guidelines, Aboejoewono told reporters yesterday.

The guidelines will set out the vehicle emission test procedures, such as which auto repair shops will be allowed to conduct the test and the specifications of tools to be used.

"The guidelines are part of the city's Blue Sky program and the national air cleanliness movement," Aboejoewono said.

He said the guidelines were in accordance with the 1992 Traffic Law which states that all vehicles must past roadworthiness tests.

Over the past two years, the administration has already conducted emission tests on both public and privately owned vehicles at selected spots in and around the capital.

The results were hardly encouraging.

Only 54.3 percent of 10,880 vehicles checked in the first three months of this year, for example, passed the test.

The examination found vehicles using diesel fuel had the highest failure rate, at 56 percent. Gasoline-powered cars had a failure rate of 39 percent.

It was also revealed that nearly a third of taxis which use the supposedly clean petroleum gas failed the emission test.

The test confirmed that the older the vehicle, the more likely it was to fail the test. Fifty-seven percent of the vehicles run on gasoline made before 1980 failed, compared with 53 percent of those made between 1980 and 1985.

"With the results of the trial, I believe that it is urgent for us to have an official law. It is important to improve public awareness about the need to reduce poisonous gasses emitted by vehicle engines," Aboejoewono said.

The guidelines are also expected to compel vehicle owners who want to renew their cars' plate registrations to subject their vehicle to an emission test.

The idea, however, was dismissed by the Indonesian Forum for Environment, Walhi.

Walhi executive Maya Farah said: "I agree with the emission tests, but don't make it a requirement for renewing car registration numbers. It will just create room for officials to collect bribes."

She suggested the administration should concentrate more on upgrading public transportation and reducing the number of private cars.

"If we have comfortable public transportation, people will choose to ride a bus rather than using their own car," she said. (07)