Michael P Walsh, the World Bank's technical consultant on pollution and editor of Car Lines, an international newsletter on vehicular pollution control and energy issues, spoke of the steps that could be taken in India to curb pollution from vehicles. Excerpts from an interview with Walsh:

How serious is the vehicular pollutionthreat to human lives?

In urban cities, most of the pollution comes from petrol and diesel driven vehicles in the form of lead, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur and particulate matter. As per World Health Organization statistics, more than 4,60,000 premature deaths globally per year were due to particulate matter pollution and 3,70,000 were due to sulphur dioxide pollution. Both these pollutants are released in the air to a large extent from diesel vehicles and to a smaller extent from petrol vehicles. So, the threat is very serious.

What should India do to reduce pollution from vehicles?

The fuel quality should be improved. The first thing that needs to be done is to remove leaded petrol completely from the market. At present, only Delhi has lead-free petrol, but this should be extended to all cities. Countries like China, Thailand, Nicaragua and Brazil have managed to eliminate lead, India can, too. The cost increase for lead-free petrol will only be marginal at about a cent agallon. The sulphur levels in diesel should also be brought down from the current rate of 2,500 ppm to 500 ppm. To pay one cent a gallon extra for such health benefits is well worth the price. The recent reduction in the price of diesel is also a bad move. Unless the government can improve the quality of diesel, it should not promote the increased use of a bad quality fuel. Even if you have a good quality engine, dirty diesel will ruin everything.

Is it enough to improve fuel quality to reduce pollution?

Improving fuel quality cannot be done in isolation. Without better emission standards, engine technology and inspection and maintenance, pollution can never be reduced. India should rapidly move toward tighter standards for vehicles in all these aspects. Right now, the government is only talking about Euro I standards by the year 2000, but what about the plans for the future? In Europe, the plans for Euro III have already been laid down and governments are working towards this.

Do yourecommend scrapping of old vehicles here, too?

Scrapping of vehicles older than a particular age is not the ideal answer for India. But they should be moved out of highly polluted areas to the less polluted rural areas after they reach the cut-off age of 10-15 years. The inspection and maintenance should be substantially improved also. Any technology upgrade will be useless if maintenance is poor.

What role can automobile manufacturers play here?

Other than constantly investing in and upgrading engine technology, manufacturers should play a major role in maintenance. For they will best know how to upkeep the technology they have provided. They can run better service centres and train mechanics on how to repair the vehicle properly. The fitness norms for all vehicles should be tightened, including those for two-wheelers, which are the largest in number on the roads, but have to face few stiff norms. The ideal thing would be for all factors -- better fuel quality, tighter emission norms andupgrading of technology -- to work together, instead of in isolation. Banning one type of vehicle or fuel would be bad.

FRENCHMAN Andre Douad is the director of engines (Energy R&D) at the Institut Francais du Petrole. He is in charge of development programmes on engines, fuels, energy and environment conservation in partnership with the automobile, oil and energy industries in France. He is also the advisor to the French government on engines, fuels, environment and strategy till the year 2000. Excerpts from an interview with Doaud, who was also a key speaker at the AIAM meet:

How important are alternate fuels in bringing down pollution?

Introducing alternate fuels per se will not help, unless these are freely available in the market. Right now, alternate fuels have a limited market and will have an effect on only five per cent of the market. But with conventional fuel continuing to cover 95 per cent of the vehicles on the roads, governments must concentrate on improving fuel quality. Thepollution levels can be brought down considerably with good engine technology and better quality fuels. But captive fleet switches to alternate fuels, like public transport buses, should be encouraged.

What do you mean by good engine technology? What makes a good engine?

A good fuel injection system, a catalytic converter and an electronically controlled engine, will significantly reduce the emission levels by 20-50 per cent.

But will that mean an increase in car prices?

New technology does not mean an increase in the price of the product. The cost of a vehicle should come down with more and more electronic parts being introduced. Also the government should decrease the tax on cars that have improved engine technology. If a car with better technology is high priced, it will only cater to a niche market and it will not help in reducing the pollution levels.

What about emission norms?

Emission norms should be determined by doing proper field studies of emissions from petrol anddiesel engines. Simply applying Euro standards will not help, though compared with Californian or Japanese standards, European stan- dards will suit India better as they cover a wider area and different traffic patterns. The European standards are typical of cities that are crowded, but have traffic management, whereas in the US, the volume of traffic is lower. I personally believe India is closer to Europe in traffic patterns and these norms could be applied but with modifications to adjust to the more chaotic traffic conditions here.