KARACHI, July 20: The city government is working on a plan which, will envisage a ban on registration of more diesel buses and conversion of old public transport vehicles with CNG.

According to sources in the city government, in view of the alarming level of air pollution on roads, the transport and communication department, has drafted a set of action plans, which will be forwarded to the city nazim and the provincial government for the implementation as soon as those are finalized by the competent forum, after getting inputs from all the stakeholders.

The district coordination officer has started receiving feedbacks on the draft strategies to control air pollution in Karachi and shortly a report will be placed before the Traffic Management Board of the city government for final recommendations.

The adverse impact of transport on the quality of air in the city was very severe. The human exposure to elevated levels of harmful pollutants generated by buses and other transport vehicles have been contributing to increased incidence of illness and reduction in human life span, said an official.

The transport department's report circulated among various quarters said that the diesel available in Pakistan could be termed as poor quality diesel. The sulphur contents of imported diesel in Pakistan is 5,000 parts per million (ppm), while for domestically produced diesel, it is 10,000 ppm.

Till such time the refineries in Pakistan are able to provide better quality diesel in the market and the imported diesel is of better quality, thinking about improvement in air quality through improved diesel engine technologies will be premature, the report included.

The report also refers to some scientific findings, describing diesel vehicles, which were around 10 per cent of the total number of vehicles plying on the city roads, contributed disproportionately to the output of most major category pollutants in the city accounting for over 86 per cent of the 60,736 tonnes of emissions each year.

About pollution from buses, it was said that 18,000 buses plied in the metropolis for public transport, out of which around 12,000 were operating on Karachi urban routes. About 43 per cent (7,580) are over 15-years-old, a majority of which required phasing out as their condition was beyond normal maintenance measures and their continued use has resulted in high-level emission of smoke and particulates, it added.

The report also discussed the over-loading in buses, particularly during peak hours, and the consequential smoke emission. The worst polluters should be taken off the heavy traffic corridors and high density areas, it added and criticised the overloading on trucks, mainly run on diesel.

It has been suggested in the draft policy initiatives that as immediate action plans a ban on registration of diesel vehicles, a ban on re-registration or issuance of route permit to public transport vehicles brought from other provinces, a ban on alteration of vehicles by replacing petrol engines with diesel engines, imposition of heavy penalty, a minimum of Rs1,000 to mechanically unfit vehicle causing air pollution.

The report further suggested for imposition of ban on sale of oil/lubricants from roadside or any other premises other than petrol pumps and on sale of reclaimed lubricant oil of poor quality.

Towards a better traffic management, it was said that a strategy for operation of public transport in extreme left lane, observance of speed limits, observance of designated bus stops, particularly prohibiting stoppage close to or at the intersections, prohibition of overloading both in public transport and goods vehicles, restrictions on the plying of goods vehicles during the day by further tightening of regulations and removal of encroachments from roads.

For promotion of use of CNG in vehicles, the report also called for increasing present CNG pressures of 8psi to 20psi at filling stations, availability of CNG to the transport sector with same tax exemptions as being extended to the industry sector, replacement of buses or mini-buses or coaches over 15-years-old with CNG buses only on 'oldest bus to go first' principle.