PESHAWAR, Oct 15: The government in cooperation with a Japanese donor agency, JICA, is initiating a Rs1 billion project to instal equipment to monitor pollution of in five cities – Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta.

This was stated by NWFP Environmental Protection Agency director Dr Mohammad Bashir.

Peshawar is rated as one the highly polluted cities in the country with the average carbon monoxide recorded at 17PPM and at some places up to 38PPM against the WHO limit of 9PPM.

The dust level in the city is 10 times above the WHO limit and the noise level at many spots is between 90 to 100db while the WHO limit is 85db.

Similarly, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the ozone level has reached 49.5 particles per billion in congested areas of Peshawar and the level of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen has reached 46.5 and 44 particles per billion which is quite alarming.

Once famous for its serene beauty and gardens, the historical city of Peshawar is swarmed these days by population and ever-increasing number of vehicles is making it unsafe for healthy living.

Of four million vehicles plying in the country, 200,000 ply on roads of Peshawar. At least 400 per cent increase in the vehicular traffic has been recorded in the last two decades in the country. Pressure horns, vehicular emissions and narrow roads of the city present the picture of a beehive.

Dr Bashir said vehicular emission test (VET) was being carried out with assistance of the traffic police since 1997 and 224,240 vehicles had been tested in Peshawar, of which 161,498 had cleared the test.—APP