Unfit vehicles pass PUC test, no set norms

₹100 and five minutes — that’s all it apparently takes to get a pollution under control (PUC) certificate in Delhi, even if your vehicle exceeds the designated emission mark.

- Snehil Sinha

From August 24 to September 5, and then again on October 13 and 14, HT took a spin around town in a five-year-old black Hyundai Creta diesel car and got PUC certificates from five centres across the Capital. While most PUC centres are at petrol pumps, some are stand-alone too.

Four out of the five centres that HT visited did not conduct the standard checks mandated by the Delhi transport department needed to provide a PUC certificate. Last October, the Delhi government made it mandatory to have PUC certificates for getting fuel, a step towards controlling pollution in the city. But a year on, spot checks by HT found gaps in the regulation of PUC centres that seem to be ensuring that many unfit vehicles are passing the test.

The test

The PUC test of diesel vehicles indicates the smoke density, which should not be more than 0.7 per metre for BS-6 vehicles. For petrol and CNG vehicles, carbon monoxide (CO) and Hydrocarbon (HC) levels are checked.

For diesel vehicles – which is what HT used -- if the emission crosses this limit of 0.7 per metre, one does not get a valid PUC document. After servicing, the vehicle must undergo a PUC test again to get the certificate.

According to the Delhi transport department, the test is to be conducted using a gas analyser connected to a computer. “The vehicle is supposed to be switched on when the gas analyser is connected to the silencer or the tailpipe of the vehicle and the reading is recorded by the computer,” said an official.

For petrol vehicles, the car is kept idling (switched on but in neutral gear) during the test, and for diesel vehicles, the accelerator is supposed to be pressed to capacity four-five times to get the correct value.