53,700 vehicles registered across country every day
Dipak Dash
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New Delhi:
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Worried Experts Press For Alternative Transport System
The decrepit state of public transport in the country is driving up sales of private vehicles at an alarming rate. Private vehicle sales are believed to be largely responsible for the spurt in registration of vehicles which touched an all-time high of 1.96 crore in 2015 --that's almost 53,720 vehicles hitting the streets every day.While the annual registration of vehicles was less than 10 lakh till 1993, registrations continued to grow steadily after that with 2010 seeing a quantum leap. In 2014, the total registrations stood at 1.94 crore.
According to vehicle registration details, UP saw the highest number of registrations of 24.38 lakh vehicles in 2015. Maharashtra was se cond highest at 19.91 crore registrations followed by 15.15 lakh in Karnataka. Delhi re gistered 6.27 lakh vehicles.
Sources said though the number of new registration includes re-registration of vehicles, their number is very less. “But we must also keep in mind that over 75% of vehicles are two-wheelers. This segment is growing fast as price of two-wheelers is within common man's reach and the transport cost per kilometre is less than what is charged by buses,“ said a transport ministry official said.
Urban transport expert N Ranganathan said the situation is expected to get worse as the country's vehicle population is likely to touch at least 35 crore from the present 18.6 crore in the next 20-30 years.He said a 7% growth in GDP usually results in a 10% increase in demand of transport.“If we don't provide visible and alternate mode of trans port, people will buy more personal vehicles,“ he said.
He said the problem is gigantic and most decisionmakers don't seem to be adequately exercised by it. “Now Delhi has about 8% of country's vehicles, which is nearly 80 lakh. You can well imagine the chaos that will prevail on the roads when this number increases two-fold,“ he said.
Other experts also said that the solution lies in improving the availability of buses. They pointed out it's easy to get loan for cars and two-wheelers than for buying a bus. While a private vehicle owner needs to pay the road tax for 15 years, bus owners need to pay annual taxes per seat. So, there is little encouragement or incentive for people to become entrepreneurs in the public transport sector.
According to vehicle registration details, UP saw the highest number of registrations of 24.38 lakh vehicles in 2015. Maharashtra was se cond highest at 19.91 crore registrations followed by 15.15 lakh in Karnataka. Delhi re gistered 6.27 lakh vehicles.
Sources said though the number of new registration includes re-registration of vehicles, their number is very less. “But we must also keep in mind that over 75% of vehicles are two-wheelers. This segment is growing fast as price of two-wheelers is within common man's reach and the transport cost per kilometre is less than what is charged by buses,“ said a transport ministry official said.
Urban transport expert N Ranganathan said the situation is expected to get worse as the country's vehicle population is likely to touch at least 35 crore from the present 18.6 crore in the next 20-30 years.He said a 7% growth in GDP usually results in a 10% increase in demand of transport.“If we don't provide visible and alternate mode of trans port, people will buy more personal vehicles,“ he said.
He said the problem is gigantic and most decisionmakers don't seem to be adequately exercised by it. “Now Delhi has about 8% of country's vehicles, which is nearly 80 lakh. You can well imagine the chaos that will prevail on the roads when this number increases two-fold,“ he said.
Other experts also said that the solution lies in improving the availability of buses. They pointed out it's easy to get loan for cars and two-wheelers than for buying a bus. While a private vehicle owner needs to pay the road tax for 15 years, bus owners need to pay annual taxes per seat. So, there is little encouragement or incentive for people to become entrepreneurs in the public transport sector.
Source: Times of India, 18-08-2016
