The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Wednesday its plan to inject a total of 80 billion won ($70 million) by the year-end to reduce the number of old diesel cars to fight air pollution in the metropolitan area.

The city government’s plan is in line with the government’s effort to reduce the emissions from diesel engine cars, blamed as a major source of fine dust.


With the money, the city will subsidize the early scrapping of old diesel cars, installation of exhaust reduction devices on diesel-powered vehicles and engine modifications. 

Seoul City said about 34,900 diesel cars registered before 2005 would qualify for the subsidies. 


According to the Environment Ministry, diesel cars registered before 2005 are manufactured without exhaust reduction devices and can produce as much as eight times more emissions than recently produced diesel cars.

The city government data revealed that household heating accounted for 39 percent of locally produced fine dust, while vehicles produced 37 percent, largely caused by the wearing of tires on roads. Concrete manufacturing and construction work contributed to 22 percent.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)