Ambient air quality at five busy petrol pumps in Kolkata, India is monitored for mono-aromatic hydrocarbons and carbonyls. Among the measured volatile organic compounds, toluene and formaldehyde were the most abundant. Source apportionment using chemical mass balance identified exhaust from roadway and refueling as the major sources.

This paper provides a comparative overview of urban transport in the world’s two most populous countries: China and India. Cities in both countries are suffering from severe and worsening transport problems: air pollution, noise, traffic injuries and fatalities,
congestion, parking shortages, energy use, and a lack of mobility for the poor.

Commuters' exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) especially BTEX travelling in passenger cars in Kolkata, India were quantified in Phase I (2001–2002) and Phase II (2003–2004). Monitoring was made inside and in the immediate outside of passenger cars fitted with and without catalytic converters using different types of fuels, along two congested urban routes.

In Kolkata city the road transports are maintained by private and Government organization. A major work force belonged to the State Transport Corporation (KSTC), Government of West-Bengal. The pollution caused by these vehicles affects the workers health and caused different types of respiratory problems.

This paper discusses the political circumstances which help explain why the insanitary living conditions of such a large section of India’s urban population have been ignored, and contrasts these with the circumstances which explain successful sanitary reform in Britain in the second half of the 19th century.