Kathmandu, Aug. 18 -- Emission testing of vehicles, both private and public, started by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City since January, has been suspended indefinitely, as the City Office failed to retain a mechanical engineer.

Officials said that emission testing cannot be carried out without the help of a mechanical engineer, and the contract of the previous engineer expired a month ago.

"We have suspended emission tests on Kathmandu roads for about a month," said Jagatman Shrestha, traffic expert adviser at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City office. "We will resume testing once we renew the engineer's contract."

Random on-the-spot emissions testing of vehicles has long been a plan of the metropolis to tackle growing air pollution in the...