Visakhapatnam: The government cracks whip on vehicle owners flouting the pollution norms when their vehicle emits pollutants beyond the permissible limit, but on the contrary, the state-owned RTC buses are the major contributors to the rising pollution in the city. The officials overseeing pollution-level in the city have also expressed concern over it as despite issuance of several notices to the APSRTC over taking the old diesel polluting vehicles off the road, there was hardly any remarkable step initiated by the latter.
Deputy Transport Commissioner (Visakhapatnam) Venkateswara Rao said during the surprise checks, most of the RTC buses were found emitting pollutants beyond permissible limit. “I have asked the regional authorities of the APSRTC several times to take measures to check the pollution but nothing satisfactory has been done so far. The government-run buses should at least adhere to the pollution norms,” the deputy commissioner opined.
He also attributed the rising pollution in the city to adulterated oil being used in the vehicles. The deputy commissioner said, “The department would launch a special drive to monitor the polluting vehicles later as all staff members are now busy in the online vehicle registration process which was launched from Vizag city”.
