LAHORE: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called for an aggressive expansion of carpooling among schoolchildren, parents and staff to cut the number of private vehicles on Lahore’s roads and contain vehicular emissions as the city braces for another spell of worsening smog.

The EPA urged the School Education Department and educational institutions to make carpooling a central component of their anti-smog measures and ensure that school administrations and parents actively organise shared transport arrangements for children travelling along common routes.

In a letter addressed to the Secretary SED, the EPA Director General Abdullah Nayyar Sheikh pointed out that the prevailing air-quality situation in Punjab, particularly during peak morning hours, coupled with heavy traffic congestion on major corridors, required pre-emptive measures to reduce vehicular emissions.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2026