Hyderabad: The SC has made it mandatory for all insurance companies to give coverage only to vehicles which have Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates. But are these fitness certificates fit?
Experts say the city’s vehicle pollution monitoring system is highly unregulated with the RTA’s mobile units having only old software that can do a two-gas analysis. This means they may not be in a position to indicate how polluting the vehicles really are.
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“Most of these units do not meet standards and have not been calibrated since years. Moreover, there is no authenticity to their certificates as they are not networked with RTA,” says ex-transport commissioner Raymond Peter. There are also allegations that these units give fitness certificates to vehicles without carrying out a proper check, especially for diesel vehicles.
The PCB has also raised its pitch to modify and upgrade the system. “At present they have only a two-gas analysis of carbon dioxide which is very old. But the world over pollution checks have upgraded to four gas analysis,” says PCB’s N. Raveendhar
Senior RTA officials say that there are 150 such units across the city and routine checks are held on them every five years. The RTA had decided to host pollution certificates online along with registration and insurance details of each vehicle. But such an integration hasn’t happened yet on the M-wallet app.
