The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has yet to start emission testing of polluting vehicles, both private and public, that was suspended in mid-July.

The prolonged halt of pollution control measures has raised serious concerns, as the dry season has already set in. Kathmandu sees a spike in air pollution during the dry season with the air quality index reaching hazardous levels.

Officials said that emission testing cannot be carried out without help of a mechanical engineer, whose contract expired at the end of the previous fiscal year [in mid-July].

“We will resume testing once we hire a new engineer,” said Jagatman Shrestha, traffic expert adviser at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City office. “We have already started the process to hire an engineer.”

Random on-the-spot emission testing of vehicles has for long figured in the metropolis’ roster of plans to tackle growing air pollution in the Kathmandu Valley.

Nepal’s air quality reaches hazardous levels several times a year, and the capital city often becomes the world’s most polluted metropolis.

The city office started carrying out emission testing on January 13 in coordination with the traffic police and the federal Department of Environment and the Department of Transport Management.

The test showed that around 80 percent of diesel-fueled vehicles—buses, micro-buses and tata pick-up trucks—on Kathmandu’s roads emit black smoke beyond permissible levels. Likewise, around 30 percent of petrol vehicles—cars and motorcycles—also failed the tests.

“The crackdown on polluting vehicles had shifted vehicle owners’ attitudes towards engine maintenance,” Shrestha said. “After repeated warnings and fines, the percentage of polluting diesel vehicles had lessened to 60 percent and petrol vehicles to 10 percent.”

The metropolis carried out emission testing on over 3,000 vehicles on a random basis.

Although vehicle emission testing is mainly the responsibility of federal agencies, the constitution also mandates local governments to take measures to reduce pollution, officials say.

The metropolis has developed pollution control guidelines as per the KMC Environment and Natural Resources Protection Act-2021.

In the initial stage, the metropolis carried out testing to raise awareness among drivers. It also warned drivers and owners to maintain their vehicle engines to avoid fines and legal action, and had obtained written commitments from vehicles that failed initial tests.

Later, it slapped Rs1,000 fines on drivers of polluting vehicles for ignoring these warnings.

Metropolis officials say more problems have been found in vehicles older than 20 years. The government has announced several times its intention to ban vehicles older than 20 years throughout the country to reduce traffic congestion, air pollution, and road accidents caused by old vehicles. However, the decision has not yet been implemented.

Meanwhile, the Environment Department under the City Office said that it will enforce a ban on waste burning in its jurisdiction.

“We will issue a public notice [against waste burning] soon and take action if anyone is found violating our instructions,” said Sarita Rai, chief of the department. “We will also request other local governments in the Valley to prohibit waste burning.”

Burning of waste out in the open is one of the chief reasons behind the Valley’s deteriorating air quality, environment experts say. Incidents of waste-burning are increasingly being reported in the Valley of late.

A study on waste burning has estimated that municipalities in the Valley burn about 7,400 tonnes of waste per year or 20 tonnes per day—which is three percent of the total waste produced.

The major sources of air pollution in the Valley also include emissions from vehicles, industries, brick kilns, road upgrade drives, and construction sectors. Geographical factors, too, play a role, experts say.