LAHORE, Jan 2: The City District Government has extended the last date of replacing the defective silencers of rickshaws with the noise-free ones till Jan 15.

Earlier, the government had set Dec 31 deadline for the purpose. Officials of the CDG, the Punjab environment department and traffic police will reportedly ensure its implementation.

District officer (environment) Tariq Zaman told Dawn on Friday that the government had extended the date only to facilitate those rickshaw drivers who had yet to replace approved silencer.

He said after Jan 15 the rickshaws with noisy silencers would be impounded and released only after compliance of the order. Mr Zaman said the government had chosen 25 police stations in the city where impounded rickshaws would be parked.

He asked the rickshaw drivers to purchase silencers from the government approved companies only.Meanwhile, Rickshaw Drivers Federation secretary general Javed Sabir said the union would cooperate with the government to curb pollution and also press others to install noise-free silencers.

It may, however, be mentioned that the EPD has forwarded a draft proposal to the federal government asking it for a ban on two-stroke engine vehicles throughout the province from January 2004. It has also proposed a ban on the manufacture of two-stroke engine vehicles from the next year.