Prague will once again announce a tender for instruments for measuring emissions on roads
The Prague City Hall is once again announcing a tender for devices aimed at identifying vehicles on the roads with a damaged or missing particulate filter. The councilors decided on it today. The city has already announced the contract once, but no bidder has applied. According to the municipality, it was due to the covid-19 pandemic. The acquisition of equipment should cost about 40 million crowns, half of which should be obtained by the municipality from European funds.
“The subject of the public is the development, production and supply of custom equipment for the detection of particulate emissions from motor vehicles in the variant of stationary equipment, portable equipment and mobile equipment,” the approved document states. The stationary variant should be installed permanently, mobile in the delivery and the portable type should be used for more accurate measurement and confirmation of samples obtained by larger devices.
According to the approved document, the devices are intended to prevent and determine how many vehicles without a particulate filter are driving in the metropolis. The owner of the vehicles will be informed by the municipality, in the future the goal is to connect the facility with the traffic control systems used by the local government and the state. After that, it will be possible to park the vehicle and send it to the MOT or to carry out an on-site inspection using the device. However, according to the document, changes in legislation will be necessary for this.
The announcement of the first contract was approved by the city management at the end of last year, but no one signed up for it. “As repeated preliminary market consultations and the participation of interested parties confirmed their interest in the participation of suppliers and academic institutions in the implementation of the project, the contracting authority assumes that the reason why no tenders were received within the deadline is a recurring covidu-19 pandemic,” the approved document states. . In the new municipal contract, it extends the deadline for sending tenders and publishing a prior notice in the public procurement bulletin.
Prague is one of the regions with the highest air pollution, most of which comes from transport. According to experts, diesel engines with a malfunctioning or removed particulate filter produce a large proportion of pollutants, regardless of the age of the car. Currently, vehicle emissions are checked only during regular technical inspections, which is insufficient, according to the city management. In the past, Prague has tested emissions measurements during operation in cooperation with the Czech Technical University and the Central Automobile Club (ÚAMK). At the instigation of the municipality, the traffic police also carried out a series of inspections, which, however, they carried out with the help of a diagnostic unit on cars selected only at a glance.
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