The Need For Alternatives

Just about anyone who8217;s been on the road of late doesn8217;t need a smoke detector to tell where the majority of black exhaust comes from. Sure enough, the thick black smoke from ageing, ill-maintained commercial vehicles is enough to make a herd of stampeding elephants nervous. The fact that commercial vehicles spend a greater part of their lives on the roads only adds to the damage. The huge price differential between diesel and petrol prices in the 1980s fuelled a boom in cheap imported diesel engines, which overnight replaced the costlier petrol engines in taxi cabs. For all the fuel economy they offered, diesel engines required more maintenance.

Taxi drivers, eager to cut costs, didn8217;t keep their side of the bargain with disastrous consequences for the environment, particularly levels of suspended particulate matter SPM. But taxis are not the only ones in a long rogues list which includes autorickshaws, trucks and buses which blithely ply and pollute. So it8217;s a small cause for cheer that the transportcommissioner has now decided to crack the whip on taxis older than 15 years, recalling them for an inspection. However, anti-pollution drives are only partial solutions, particularly since they run out of steam the moment an idealistic bureaucrat is replaced. Legislation banning commercial vehicles older than 10 years is the need of the hour, as are harsh penalties like fines and cancellation of registration. And pray, where are the alternative fuels? Taxis have a point here when they say that they were the first to go in for cheaper environment-friendly fuels like CNG, a fuel regarded as untouchable by private car owners due to its difficulty in procurement.

Few motorists would want to wait in a painfully long queue at the handful of CNG filling stations. The city needs more CNG pumps if it is to breathe clean air. In the meantime, it also needs to appreciate the action of the transport commissioner in his drive against pollution and making PUC certificates mandatory.