Kathmandu, June 10

More than 75 per cent vehicles failed the emission test conducted by the Ministry of Forest and Environment in Thapathali yesterday.

The Ministry of Forest and Environment had conducted the emission test with the support of Department of Transport Management and traffic police as part of a weeklong programme organised to mark World Environment Day.

The test was conducted randomly on 33 private and public vehicles. Of the total vehicles, 25 vehicles failed the test. In comparison to other vehicles, the condition of diesel vehicles was found the worst as only one diesel vehicle of the total 15 such vehicles cleared the test. The DoTM is the only authorised government body for penalising vehicles for failing the emission test. The DoTM has two machines to conduct the emission test inside Kathmandu valley.

The DoTM and the traffic police have been regularly conducting emission tests on vehicles plying the valley’s roads since April 4. The officials said they had been conducting emission tests six days a week, except on Saturdays, with an average of 30 vehicles per day. Director General of DoTM Kumar Prasad Dahal claimed that only 40 per cent of vehicles on average had failed the tests they conducted, earlier.

During yesterday’s random emission test, majority of petrol vehicles that failed the test had exceeded 10 per cent toxic fumes, while smoke opacity of diesel vehicles had reached 99.99 Hartridge Smoke Unit(HSU).

Vehicles that failed the emission test were penalised with a fine ranging from Rs 1,000 to 5,000.