PESHAWAR: Speakers at a workshop here on Thursday urged the drivers, transporters and the masses to play their due role to control air pollution.
A day-long workshop on air pollution held in Peshawar which was jointly organised by Directorate of Transport and Mass Transit, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Department of Environmental Science University of Peshawar.
Secretary Transport Amir Lateef was chief guest on the occasion while Professor Dr Muhammad Nafees, Chairman Environmental Science department, Dr Nazneen, Dr Hizbullah and others also delivered their lectures regarding air pollution.
Amir Lateef said the transport department is going to develop various policies aimed at controlling and reducing vehicular air pollution.
He said that revolutionary steps are being taken in the Directorate of Transport and Mass Transit and for the first time in history the National Environmental Standards (NEQS) have been changed to international standards to check the pollution emitted by the vehicles and this historic change has been made in the quality standards received from the federal government in 1994 and it has included the gases that cause global warming and climate change for the first time and made the existing standards more stringent.
He said that Peshawar and nine other stations for testing vehicles in other districts of the province including Peshawar, Mardan, Swat, Malakand, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Kohat, Bannu and DI Khan and 14 mobile laboratories are functioning.
These machines measure the emissions of vehicles and if the emissions are below the prescribed national environmental standards, the vehicles are given a pass certificate which is valid for six months.
The secretary announced internship for the students of the Environmental Sciences department, under which 10 students will be given the opportunity to avail this internship in transport department for three months, and during that time, Rs 25,000 per month as stipend will be given. On the occasion, Professor Dr Muhammad Nafis, Chairman of the Environmental Sciences department, Dr Tariq Usman, Deputy Director PIR, Zubair Manager VETS , Lecturer Dr Shehla Nazneen, Dr Khazabullah and others gave lectures to the participants regarding air pollution control.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022