Most vehicles in city fail emission test: Official

Leony Aurora, Jakarta

More than 60 percent of diesel-fueled private vehicles and 36.2 percent of gasoline-fueled ones in Greater Jakarta do not meet emission standards, official announced on Monday.

The data comes from spot checks involving 2,034 cars, comprising 903 diesel-fueled and 1,131 gasoline-fueled vehicles. The checks were carried out by the Office of the State Minister for the Environment and the Jakarta Environmental Management Agency.

The random spot checks were conducted in nine municipalities in Greater Jakarta in May.

"This shows that not only public transportation vehicles, but private vehicles as well contribute to air pollution in Jakarta," Ridwan Tamin, the office's assistant deputy on vehicle emissions, told The Jakarta Post.

Public buses may be infamous for spewing out thick clouds of black smoke, but private cars, which outnumber public vehicles by five to one, also put out emissions.

The results of the spot checks will be used to help the authorities revise emission standards, which are being discussed by the state minister's office and local administrations, said Tamin.

"It has been 10 years since we set the current national standard," he said.

The national standard was set in 1993 and stipulates that gasoline-fueled cars can emit a maximum of 4.5 percent carbon monoxide (CO) and 2,400 ppm of hydrocarbons (HC). Diesel-fueled cars' smoke opacity is limited at 25 percent.

Jakarta has applied tougher standards since 2000. For example, cars with injection systems cannot exceed 3 percent CO and 600 ppm of HC.

Tamin said the revised standards would not top the emission standards applied in Jakarta, which are the stiffest among all the provinces in Indonesia.

"We will announce the revisions in September," said Tamin.

The city administration has announced that it will enforce administrative sanctions against private vehicles that do not comply with emission standards. Motorists who fail to obtain a green emission sticker will not be able to obtain their vehicle registration documents.

Jakartans must have their vehicles tested at least once a year by one of 107 certified operators in 50 garages, which were appointed by a "clean-air team".

To help promote clean air, the Office of the State Minister for the Environment is holding a competition between agencies and offices in five cities -- Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, and Denpasar -- on the emissions of their official cars. The competition began in April.

The winner will receive an award from the state minister's office in September.