Govt to introduce 250 new vehicles to curb vehicular pollution
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The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) will remove outdated vehicles and introduce 250 new ones to curb vehicular pollution, as the outdated vehicles are a major contributor to poor urban air quality.
The government is also planning to establish 10 automatic vehicle inspection centres to enforce emission standards.
Looking ahead, a working group will be formed in consultation with the Chinese experts to develop long-term strategies.
Environment adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan, while speaking to journalists at the Bangladesh Secretariat following a productive meeting with a visiting team of Chinese air pollution experts, outlined the government's comprehensive plan addressing immediate, mid-term, and long-term solutions under the Bangladesh Clean Air Project (BCAP).
The government has announced a series of proactive steps aimed at tackling air pollution, with a strong focus on controlling dust pollution in Dhaka ahead of winter, she added.
She said as part of short-term measures, all road repair works in Dhaka are targeted to be completed before winter.
Surface covering, fencing, and water spraying systems will be implemented to control dust. Additional initiatives include using watering carts, land hardening, and enforcing a “zero soil” policy to prevent dust from exposed surfaces.
Advisor Rizwana Hasan stressed the importance of accurate data collection and analysis for policy formulation and sustainable progress.
Mid- and long-term goals include establishing an advanced air quality emission monitoring system, aligning emission standards with global norms, introducing sanitary landfills and waste incineration plants, and promoting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cleaner cooking, she added.
Tax incentives for environmentally friendly practices and technologies are also under review. Under BCAP, the Department of Environment (DoE) will launch a continuous emission monitoring system for high-polluting industries and conduct training and awareness programmes nationwide, she continued.
Meanwhile, the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) will install road fencing and introduce 50 electric vehicles to promote cleaner transport.
A Japan-funded initiative will establish eight real-time air quality monitoring stations to support evidence-based policymaking, and the BEST project will also be implemented to complement these efforts.
Also present at the meeting were Farhina Ahmed, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Prof Yu Zhao, Executive Dean, School of Environment, Nanjing University; Haikun Wang, Vice Dean, Nanjing-Helsinki Institute in Atmospheric and Earth System Sciences; and Tengyu Liu, Associate Prof, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University.
The meeting emphasised the importance of developing a national emission inventory and conducting chemical analyses to identify pollution sources.
These steps will lay the foundation for a robust source apportionment study—key to designing targeted, science-based interventions across the country.