JAKARTA: Too many cars and not enough auto shops is the main problem facing the implementation of mandatory emissions tests for private vehicles, stipulated in a 2005 bylaw on air pollution, an official said Thursday.

"Our database shows there are about 10,000 private and public vehicles that need to be tested. Eighty auto shops won't be enough," the chief of the law enforcement unit of the Jakarta Traffic Police, Sr. Tomex Kurniawan, said at a seminar on emissions testing organized by Swiss Contact and the Jakarta Transportation Board.

He said that, if the city wanted the bylaw to be properly implemented, the administration needed to provide emissions testing facilities at every neighborhood unit across the city.

The limited number of certified technicians -- to date there are just 239 -- also presents a problem. The head of the Jakarta Industrial and Trade Agency's environmental unit, Hotner Tampubolan, said that PT Sucofindo and PT Surveyor Indonesia had been appointed to issue certificates for auto shops and technicians.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20060317.G05