The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), in collaboration with an NGO - Society of Automotive Fitness and Environment (SAFE) -, has devised an upgraded pollution under control (PUC) model, which it plans to introduce in the four metros and in Bangalore and Hyderabad within the next three months.
The upgraded PUC centres will have modern emission test equipment that will be connected to a computer. All the PUC centres will have digital cameras that will capture the registration number of the vehicle, in order to check malpractices (often, vehicles get PUC certificates without going through the emission test). The new model can check three gases at a time.
The different PUC centres will also be inter-connected to all the upgraded centres of these six cities.
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There are around 1,000 PUC centres in these cities. Such an interconnected system will help the transport departments of these cities to access the data of any vehicle tested at any PUC centre in the city.
"Authorities can also track vehicles which do not report to these centres for a periodic check through this new PUC checking centres," K K Gandhi, senior advisor, SIAM, told Business Standard.
"We are planning to put up two units each in the six cities as a first step," Rajat Nandi, executive director, SIAM, said, adding that each unit costs Rs 4.5 lakh.
"However, if existing owners of PUC centres want to upgrade themselves to the new technology, the cost is only around Rs 2.5 lakh," Nandi added.
SIAM will inaugurate the first new PUC model in Kolkata on June 4. "Oil companies, transport authorities, environmentalists and even petrol pumps have shown a lot of interest in this new model," Gandhi said.
According to him, if this model becomes popular, authorities can enforce pollution control measures more effectively.
"Authorities can identify the gross polluters through this new PUC model. In most cities, gross polluters are known to cause more than 50 per cent of the total pollution," Gandhi added.