Dubai Municipality undertakes on-the-road vehicle emission survey

The survey project was presented on Monday at DM Staff Club to representatives of Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Dubai Police Traffic Department, Federal Environment Agency, and officials and staff of concerned departments at the municipality. The survey is being carried out in close cooperation with RTA and Dubai Police.

Abdullah Raffia, Assistant Director General of Dubai Municipality for Environment and Public Health Affairs, said the initiative is aimed at gathering on-road vehicle emission data and comparing the same with data collected at the Central Emission Testing Centre and authorized vehicle testing branches.

"Vehicle emission accounts for 75 to 80 per cent of Dubai's air pollution, while the rest is due to emissions from manufacturing industries and power plants. This survey will enhance the process of identification and reporting of vehicles that emit excessive smoke. It will also help evaluate overall performance of the current process for inspection and maintenance of vehicle emission data thereby helping us to lay down effective strategies and policies to control vehicle emissions," said Raffia.

He noted that survey, which began in April this year, will last for eight months and will be done at some 200 locations across the city.

"The idea is to measure pollutant levels in a vehicle's exhaust while the vehicle is traveling on the road. Five major air pollutants i.e. hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2), and smoke emissions are being detected. The remote sensing technology will do away with the need to connect the testing device physically to a vehicle," he said.

Redha Salman, Head of Environment Protection and Safety Section at the municipality, said this concept is an efficient tool to monitor large vehicle fleet and identify excessive polluters of great appeal and it will be a complement to traditional emission testing and control programs.

He explained that the systems operate by continuously projecting a beam of IR/UV light across a roadway and adopt IR/UV light absorption principle to measure the pollutants.
"The survey will show the drivers the emission levels of their vehicles whether it is good, fair or poor. It will encourage vehicle tuning so as to reduce the emission level," said Salman.

He noted that emission measurement shall be evaluated for both public and private for Dubai and Non-Dubai licensed covering taxis, buses (public transport, schools, labourers), heavy vehicles such as trucks, trailers and private and public cars, in addition to age of motor vehicles and fuel fleet usage.

As per the current rules, vehicles with excessive emission will be fined Dhs300 as per reports presented by inspectors of Environment Protection and Safety Section of the municipality. During the period from 1999 to 2006, some 1,115 vehicles have been reported.