Having a Pollution Under Control certificate, more commonly known as the PUC certificate, is mandatory for all the vehicles in India as per the Motor Vehicles Act. In metro and tier 1 cities, it is very easy to get a PUC certificate.

I haven’t seen petrol pumps doing PUC checks themselves, but they generally contract someone to offer PUC checks. Therefore, presence of a vehicle with a BIG PUC board sign is a common sight near petrol pumps. Although, you will often find that the owner of that vehicle is “missing” (gone AWOL :P) for large periods of time and the petrol pump employees would “proudly” say that “that guy” is not their employee :(. So let us understand the process of getting a PUC certificate.

First and foremost, always inquire about the charges and the validity. The cost should not exceed Rs. 100 (in 2019. Please convert to inflation adjusted charges for subsequent years.). Generally PUC checks are valid for six months and you will get a certificate which will mention the duration of validity. As the PUC certificate is mandatory and since the certificate generally has a validity of six months, a vehicle owner needs to perform PUC test twice every year.

Let’s come to the actual testing process which is very simple. The PUC machine has a long pipe which is attached to the silencer of your car. The car must have its engine running. The machine measures the amount of Carbon Monoxide (CO) for about 30 seconds and displays whether the emissions are within the prescribed limits. If the emissions are within limits it displays “PASS”. If they are not, I don’t know :p. My car has always been within limits. This time my car’s emissions had 0.3% of CO which was well within the limit of 0.5% for four wheeler cars.

Once the test is done, you pay the person and get the PUC certificate. Make sure the certificate, which is more like the size of an ID card contains the following things:

  1. Serial number
  2. Vehicle registration number as on the number plate.
  3. Date of test
  4. Validity
  5. Test results - Percentage of CO emissions

Then comes the most important thing. Immediately go to your google calendar and create a reminder for the date when your PUC certificate is going to expire. That way, you would not forget the next test. Now keep the certificate in your vehicle drawer along with your registration papers and insurance, lock the car, put on your seat belt and have a safe drive.