Shortage of pollution test centers in Jaipur impedes RTO drive

Jaipur: The regional transport office’s online vehicle pollution investigation is facing a problem as the vehicle pollution test centers are not in adequate numbers. The department is preparing to impose a penalty on vehicles not having a pollution certificate from January 3 after giving two months time, but the reality is that there are only 154 test centers in the city. These centers check up to 6000 vehicles daily however the total vehicles are 18 lakhs. In such a situation, it remains to be seen how such a high number of vehicles get checked in only 2 months. According to the test centers, the pollution test for these many vehicles will take minimum 10 months time. The department will need to give people more time to get their vehicles tested.

In two months only 3 lakh 56 thousand vehicles were tested. The officials of the Transport Department have admitted that the reason for this is the shortage of test centers. The total number of vehicles in Jaipur district is about 28 lakhs out of which more than 18 lakh vehicles are running on the roads. If the vehicles are checked at this speed, then at least 10 months should be given to people to get their vehicles tested.

There are 27.97 lakh registered vehicles in the city. More than 18 lakh vehicles are operating on the road out of which 3.17 lakh petrol vehicles were tested until December 5. Up to this date, 39,396 diesel vehicles have been checked. Accordingly, a total of 3.56 lakh vehicles have been examined. This means about 6,000 vehicles are being examined every day. Out of the tested vehicles, 11,992 vehicles have failed the test.

After the compulsion of pollution check, long queues of vehicles are witnessed at pollution centers of the city. People have to wait for at least half-an-hour to get the vehicle checked.  Due to the time that is being taken, the test centers are not checking diesel vehicles. The result is still not satisfactory after the test, as the failed vehicles are also running on roads thus pollution levels are also not decreasing in the city. Meanwhile, the department has instructed to set up pollution test centers at vehicle service station, however, most dealers have not taken these orders seriously.