Private cars to undergo gas emission tests
Private cars to undergo gas emission tests
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration will start to implement gas emission tests on private vehicles in an effort to curb air pollution.
The head of the city environmental bureau, Aboejoewono Aboeprajitno, said yesterday it was high time for the city to carry out emission tests on private vehicles, considering that transport was the main culprit.
Recent research by the United Nations Development Program indicated that Jakarta is the third-most polluted city in the world, after Mexico City and Bangkok.
Governor Surjadi said that the city administration has recently launched a clean-air campaign, locally called Prodasih, in conjunction with the central government.
Data from the city's environment and monitoring study office shows that transport contributes 67.10 percent to air pollution, the industrial sector 18.9 percent, with 3.88 percent being caused by the burning of garbage and 11.12 percent by domestic activities.
According to Law No. 14/1992 on Traffic and Land Transportation, all vehicles must undergo an emission test. However, in the first phase the government decided to test only public transport vehicles.
The government has been delaying the test for private vehicles and it is not clear when it will be enforced.
The number of private vehicles in Jakarta is higher than that of public vehicles. There are more than 1.8 million private cars, compared to 700,000 public transportation vehicles. Aboejoewono also urged the city administration to tighten up the testing of public transportation vehicles.
"It is important to improve and tighten up testing to ensure that only vehicles in good condition are on the city's streets. The city's air condition will get worse in the near future if nothing is done to remedy the situation," he said.
The head of the city's environmental study and monitoring office has said that the air in the city is still tolerable, but said that it was important to implement regulations to prevent it from getting worse. (yns)