The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) will remove outdated and unfit vehicles and introduce 250 new ones to curb vehicular pollution as such outdated vehicles are 'responsible' for poor urban air quality.
The government is also planning to establish 10 automatic vehicle inspection centers to help ensure emission standards.
Keeping this in view, a working group will be formed in consultation with the Chinese experts to develop long-term strategies to this effect.
Environment adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan informed news men about the government's immediate, mid-term, and long-term plan under the Bangladesh Clean Air Project (BCAP) after holding a meeting with a visiting Chinese team of air pollution experts.
The government has announced a series of proactive steps, aiming to tackle air pollution, with a strong focus on controlling dust pollution in Dhaka ahead of winter, she added.
The adviser 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, she said, adding that such initiatives include using watering carts, land hardening, and enforcing a "zero soil" policy to prevent dust from exposed surfaces.
Ms. Rizwana 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.
Providing of tax incentives for environmentally friendly practices and technologies are also under review, she mentioned.
Under BCAP, the Department of Environment (DoE) will launch a continuous emission monitoring system for high-polluting industries and conduct training and awareness programs nationwide in this regard, she continued.
Meanwhile, the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) will install road fencing and introduce 50 electric vehicles to promote cleaner transports.
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 the major sources of pollution.
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