Forever testing

The Punjab Environmental Protection Agency has reportedly conducted emissions testing on 123,000 vehicles over the past 50 days or so, which averages out to about 2,460 per day. As far as I am aware, there are around 60 testing booths, which means only 44 vehicles have been tested per booth per day.

Statistics indicate that there are some 7 million registered vehicles in Lahore out of which 4.8 million are motorcycles which contribute significantly to air pollution. At the present pace of testing of vehicles, it will take over 800 days to complete the exercise. The department might like to significantly increase the number of testing booths by perhaps involving private workshops of repute.

Dr Anwar Kabir Sheikh

Lahore