The Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC) will roll out 20 new buses with Euro III engines, in an attempt to bring down the air pollution level in the city.

This is for the first time the state government will introduce Euro III buses, which will hit the road by by April-end. The vehicles will run on almost all major routes.

The engines will help bring down the pollution level in comparison to buses with Euro II engines, claimed CSTC officials.

The new buses will have a computerised mechanism — a “digitised integrated close circuit” — that will help drivers detect any technical fault beforehand.

“From now on, buses without Euro III engines will not be registered. The permissible smoke opacity for the buses with Euro III engines will be within 15 Hartridge smoke unit, which is around 35 Hartridge smoke unit in case of buses with Euro II engines,” said managing director of CSTC Ashok Bhattacharya.

CSTC will organise training sessions to familiarise the drivers with the new system.

“We have equipped the new buses with the latest technology to beat the pollution level. The buses will send pre-emptive alerts to the driver about technical faults,” Bhattacharya explained.

Though the government has moved a step ahead to bring down air pollution by procuring Euro III buses, it has no plans yet to ban smoke-belching old vehicles.

Recently, Calcutta’s poison fumes were brought under the high court scanner, with a bench asking the state to disclose level of the air pollution in the city.

Green activist Subhas Dutta in a petition to the high court stated that auto-emission has turned Calcutta into “the most polluted city” of India.

A study by a South Korea-based company OHMAH and Co. has revealed that over 70 per cent government buses run on “condemned” engines that belch poisonous fumes.

“Pollution in the city has reached an alarming level. Vehicles more than 15 years old and unlicensed autorickshaws are the worst polluting agents,” said Dutta.

“The emission-testing system is quite inadequate here. To rein in the rising pollution level, the government should first ban old vehicles,” he added.