Aged diesel-powered vehicles that were registered before 2005 and failed to meet the emissions standards will be completely banned from running on the roads in Seoul and metropolitan areas starting 2020 as part of the nationwide efforts to reduce air pollution.

Environment Minister Yoon Seong-kyu, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, and Gyeonggi Province Governor Nam Kyung-pil on Thursday signed an agreement to implement regulations restricting old diesel cars from entering Seoul and metropolitan areas if they fail to meet the emissions standards.

The country has been putting in its utmost efforts to fight against increasing find dust concentration that has worsened the country’s air pollution threatening the public health. Aged and heavy diesel vehicles are largely blamed for increasing fine dust concentration, according to the recent government’s finding.

The new rule will go into effect from 2017 across Seoul. Incheon, excluding Ongjin County, and 17 other cities in Gyeonggi Province that are near to Seoul will implement the new pollution control rule from 2018. The rest of the metropolitan areas surrounding Seoul will adopt the updated regulation on aged diesel cars from 2020.

Currently, 1.04 million aged diesel cars were registered before 2005 in Seoul and the metropolitan areas, and any of them failing to meet the emissions test or having not taken any steps upon receiving an order to install a pollution reduction device will be restricted from entering Seoul and the neighboring cities. Seoul city government announced such detailed measures last week.

An old diesel car that weighs over 2.5 tons and has not installed any pollution reduction device within six months upon receiving an order will be fined from next year. A total of 470,000 registered old diesel cars weighing below 2.5 tons such as Hyundai Motor Co.’s Trajet and Kia Motors Corp.’s Carnival vans will be exempted from the new order to install an emission-reducing device. But if they fail to pass the regular emissions check, they will also be banned from entering Seoul and metropolitan areas.

Korea’s local governments have implemented a regulation to require aged cars registered before 2005 to install a pollution-reducing device or upgrade to a low-pollution engine. If a car that has failed to meet such low-emission rule and enters Seoul or metropolitan area, a penalty of 200,000 won ($180) will be issued with a maximum limit of 2 million won. Up to 100,000 aged cars will be subject to monitoring for the low-emission control every year as an average of 30,000 to 60,000 cars receive an order to upgrade their engine to meet the low-pollution guideline and 40,000 cars fail to pass the regular emission check each year.

Also, the Seoul and the neighboring cities will expand the number of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to monitor cars violating the low-emission rule to cover wider areas in Seoul and neighboring cities by 2020. There currently are seven CCTV cameras in Seoul monitoring the violators.

By Lee Seung-yoon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]