KSRTC big polluter, fails to meet emission norms: KSPCB

BENGALURU: The toxic air has worsened the lives of commuters in the IT City, and guess, who is to be blamed? KSRTC, which stands fifth among state transport corporation in size in the country, has failed to meet the national emission standards. Of 15,000 vehicles inspected by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), of them over 24% diesel vehicles – majority of them being KSRTC buses, have failed to meet the national emission standards.

KSPCB Chairman Lakshman maintained that the joint inspection of vehicles with the state transport department found that though BMTC buses have met the prescribed standards, KSRTC buses have not. 

“Not all KSRTC buses are meeting the prescribed standards of the pollution control board. We will conduct more checks in the future with the transport department,” he said. 

Denying the charges, KSRTC said that the buses flouting the emission norms could be from BMTC. 

Senior KSRTC officials said, “We have Prakurthi, the emission testing vehicle, to check the buses continuously. Not a single case of flouting of the emission norms has been reported against the KSRTC.”

With the increasing levels of PM10, the KSPCB has planned to come up with more monitoring stations. Recently, the board installed five continuous air monitoring stations across the city. 

Vehicular emission contributes about 42% to the pollution.
70,80,949 vehicles have been registered, of them 44,374 buses ply in the city. 
As per KSRTC reports of October 2016, over 8,348 buses ply across the state.