Fine dust blankets Seoul’s Seocho district on Nov. 23, 2023. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Vehicles in the highest emission category will be banned from running across Seoul on weekdays during the fine dust-congested winter season to help reduce the city’s fine dust levels, city officials said Monday.
The decision is part of Seoul’s annual winter-season fine dust reduction campaign, marking the fifth in 2023. Fine dust congestion levels typically go up in winter when the air tends to stagnate, preventing the diffusion of fine dust.
Under the latest measure, Grade 5 emission vehicles in the country’s five-stage appraisal system will be banned from the roads in Seoul between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays from December to March.
A violation is subject to a fine of 100,000 won (US$76.6).
In the five-scale appraisal system, electric and hydrogen fuel cars are given the cleanest Grade 1, while diesel vehicles get a score between Grade 3 and 5 according to their fine dust emission levels.
There are presumably about 610,000 Grade 5 vehicles nationwide.
Transportation is one of Seoul’s three main fine dust emitters, accounting for 28 percent of the total emission. The others are heating and industrial workplaces.
Through the previous fourth round of the winter-season reduction campaign, conducted from December 2022 through March 2023, the average ultrafine dust density came to 26 micrograms per cubic meter during the period, down 26 percent from the level seen four months earlier, city officials said.
For this year, the city has set a higher goal of reducing ultrafine dust by 125 tons.
(Yonhap)
