Hanoi eyes more car wash systems at filling stations
Hanoi’s Industry and Trade Department has proposed to build automatic car wash systems at 67 filling stations as a measure to curb air pollution in the city.
Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi’s Industry and Trade Departmenthas proposed to build automatic car wash systems at 67 filling stations as ameasure to curb air pollution in the city.
Tran Thi Phuong Lan, vice director of thedepartment, said that the city wants to tighten the transportation of buildingmaterials to construction sites. Therefore, trucks carrying building materialsmust be cleaned before entering the city.
She said that measures to curb air pollution in thecity are urgent, as concentration of pollutants including CO2, CO, SO2 or NOxon roads are reportedly well above the permitted levels. The concentration of dirt on roads was twice or fourtimes higher than permitted. Hanoi takes in about 80,000 tonnes of dirt yearly. According to the department’s review, the city has497 filling stations with an area of less than 400 sq.m each, 164 stations withan area of 400-900 sq.m each and 67 stations with an area of over 900 sq.meach. According to the city’s planning until 2020 with avision towards 2030, only filling stations which have an area of over 900 sq.meach are qualified to offer car wash services. The stations are also required to be on national highwaysor major roads that lead to the city centre. However, qualified stations are not available insome national highways or major roads, for example, National Highway 21Brunning through Thanh Oai district, National Highway 18 in Soc Son district orNational Highway 5 running through Gia Lam district. Lan said that car washes at filling stations arepopular in other countries like the US, Italy, China and the Republic of Korea. She said the municipal People’s Committee assignedthe department to review the filling station network in the city and recommendpossible locations to install automatic are wash systems. The automatic car wash systems would serve oversizedtrucks and bid coaches. The department will ask People’s Committees at districtsand towns to cooperate in identifying possible locations for car wash systems. Since 2005, few car wash systems have been built atentrances to the city to prevent trucks from bringing dust to the city centre.-VNA
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Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) 
