PESHAWAR: Speakers at a workshop on Thursday urged the drivers, transporters and masses to play their role in reducing and controlling further spread of air pollution.

They stressed that as responsible citizen everyone should be serious for tackling this global issue. They expressed these views in a day long workshop on air pollution in Peshawar city jointly organized 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 Shakela Nazneen, Dr Hizbullah and others also delivered their lectures regarding air pollution.

Amir Lateef said that transport department is going to develop various policies aimed at controlling and reducing vehicular air pollution. He said 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 vehicles.

This historic change, he said, 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 nine vehicle testing stations in different 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.

If the smoke level of the vehicle exceeds the prescribed national environmental standards, it is fined and the documents are confiscated, while the expert technicians of the Vehicles Emission Testing Stations (VETS) team of the Transport Department inform the vehicle owners of the defects of the vehicles and their rectification.

The inspection team also gives instructions and fix the car after it is inspected again. The transport department secretary announced an internship for the students of the Environmental Sciences Department, under which 10 students will be given the opportunity to do an internship in the department of transport for 3 months, and during that time, 25 thousand rupees per month as stipends will be given to them.

On this 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 Hizbullah and others gave lectures to the participants regarding air pollution control.