The Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) is to launch a project in order to carry out emission tests on State owned vehicles with the help of the Vehicle Emission Testing (VET) programme in Sri Lanka.
This follows a recent decision taken by the Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association (LPBOA) to withdraw from emission testing from January next year as there is no procedure to conduct emission tests for SLTB buses and State vehicles.
Addressing the media, the LPBOA Chairman Gemunu Wijeratne said that emission testing on vehicles is not practical because the quality of the diesel fuel is not at an acceptable level. He said that in this regard, a gazette notification (1295/11) was released in 2003 by the Government, which had to be implemented in 2007. It said that the sulphur content of auto diesel was reduced to 500 parts per million (ppm). Earlier, the sulphur content was up to 2,500 ppm.
Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (9), the SLTB Chairman S.M.D.L.K.D. Alwis said that this project is to be carried out by nine mobile units deployed by the SLTB and that all the fleets of vehicles under SLTB depots are to be subjected to emission testing, whatever the results are.
He also said that around 2,345 vehicles imported by the Sri Lankan Government recently are being subjected to emission tests but that some vehicles imported many years ago are not. “Almost all the vehicle emission tests are conducted according to the Euro 4 emission standards. But, there are many SLTB vehicles with Euro 2 and 3 vehicles. Therefore, such vehicles cannot be tested under Euro 4 standards. That is the main issue for this matter. However, all the recently imported vehicles are being tested,” he said.
The VET programme identifies vehicles which exceed applicable emission standards and places them through a repair and certification process. Testing and certification is mandatory and is tied to the issuance of a vehicle’s annual revenue licence.
Several attempts made by The Daily Morning to contact the Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Highways Priyantha Mayadunne proved futile.