KARACHI, Dec 24: The Sindh Ministry of Transport is working on a proposal to privatise vehicles inspection department to improve standards of road worthiness of public transport.

The job of vehicle fitness certification is presently performed by the traffic police amid complaints of corruption and poor standards of vehicle inspection which result in passing vehicles not fit for plying on roads.

Provincial Trasnport Authority Secretary Mohammad Khalid told Dawn on Saturday that the main reason for the move was to improve the condition of vehicles to enhance road safety and check the alarming increase in air pollution caused by the defective and smoke-emitting vehicles.

The provincial government recently launched a drive against unfit vehicles, especially buses and rickshaws, which are causing pollution on roads. The drive was later abandoned on protests from the transporters and shortage of buses, which caused inconvenience to the commuters.

The PTA secretary said that the government believed that the drive against faulty vehicles was not a permanent solution to check pollution and there should be some administrative steps to check the menace of pollution.

Accordingly, there are quite a few proposals under consideration of the Sindh government, which includes public private partnership to carryout the job of vehicle inspection, privatisation of the job or giving the responsibility to the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers).

Vice-President of the Sindh Bus Owners Association Haji Ramazan said that the PTA invited offers from private parties mainly those in the transport business who have proper inspection space and the technical gadget used in inspection of vehicles.

He said that the transport ministry was not satisfied with the standard of fitness of vehicles allowed to ply on the city roads. It is believed that the traffic police owing to its enormous duty of controlling traffic and clearing traffic jams on the roads cannot perform the vehicle inspection job seriously. The result is that the standards of road worthiness of vehicles have deteriorated with the passage of time and causing serious accidents, endangering public safety on roads besides causing worst type of pollution injurious to the public health.

He said transporters were also responsible for plying vehicles on roads not complying with safety standards and health safety requirements as they do not properly maintain their vehicles to ensure that they do not emit excessive smoke.

The sale of sub-standard oil in the market, especially one mixed with the cheap smuggled petroleum products at pumps and other outlets.

The PTA is also considering imposing a ban on two-stroke pickups, which are a major cause of air pollution. There is a proposal to prohibit plying of such vehicles on roads and direct the owners to convert their vehicles into four-stroke engines.

The government has already banned registration of two-stroke rickshaws has made it clear that their registration will not be renewed beyond June 30, 2007 if their two-wheelers were not converted to four-stroke engines.