[sustran] fwd: Motorcycle makers agree to have cleaner models

[SUSTRAN Network Secretariat]

The Star
Monday, April 10, 2000

Motorcycle makers agree to have cleaner models
By Jacqueline Ann Surin 

SERDANG: The motorcycle industry has agreed to comply with new and more
stringent emission standards widely expected to be implemented this year,
Science, Technology and Environment Minister Datuk Law Hieng Ding said. 

"We have had on-going discussions with manufacturers and distributors and
they have no objections to the new regulations for motorcycle emission
levels. 

"We expect the industry to comply," he said yesterday during the ministry's
Family Day at Universiti Putra Malaysia's Expo Hill. 

Law was responding to reports that new regulations being fine-tuned before
submission to the Cabinet were expected to be implemented by June. 

The regulations would include measures to "gradually phase out" two-stroke
engine motorcycles which are more polluting than the technologically
superior four-stroke engine motorcycles. 

In the past, the industry has been resistant to the Department of
Environment's attempts to implement more stringent emission standards. 

To a question, Law said the ministry was not planning on banning older
motorcycles but expected them to conduct regular maintenance to ensure that
their emission levels did not contravene the new regulations once
implementation began. 

He said the regulations would most likely adopt what is known as the Euro 1
standard, adding that at the end of 1998, 51% of vehicles on the road were
motorcycles. 

Vehicular emissions are the biggest source of air pollution in the city. 


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A. Rahman Paul BARTER
Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia
and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network)
P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia.
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