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MUMBAI: From 3.2 lakh registered vehicles in Mumbai in 1980-81, it took two decades for the vehicular population to cross the 10 lakh mark—spanning the 1980s and 1990s—while it took just a single decade to cross the 20 lakh mark in 2011-12.WIth easy EMIs for cars and a boom in production of new vehicles/two-wheelers, it took merely five years to add a million more vehicles on Mumbai’s roads. The city had nearly 32 lakh vehicles as of last November.Experts now fear that the gap between every extra 10 lakh vehicles on road is narrowing. Soon, it could take a mere two to three years to add another million vehicles in Mumbai and this could sound alarm bells for the city—where the road length has remained at 2,000km for years, they pointed out.A study conducted by the Mumbai Environmental Social Network recently showed that the population of twowheelers, app-based taxis and school buses registered maximum growth in recent years.The study indicates how the two-wheeler population is growing phenomenally. The number of two wheelers will soon be double the number of private cars on roads. At present, the private car population is close to 10 lakh while two-wheelers have crossed 18 lakh,” said transport expert Ashok Datar.He added that there will be a further rise in the number of bikes and scooters in Mumbai in the next few years, and this could also be “disastrous”—both in terms of having more traffic snarls and incidence of mishaps. The app-based taxis (Ola, Uber) have grown from zero to 45,000 in just four years, he said, although further growth was not expected in a big way. “Many youngsters, who would have otherwise purchased cars, are shifting to travelling by aggregator cabs—mainly by Ola Share or Uber Pool—and this could restrict the growth of private cars to some extent,” he said. The study further revealed that app-based cabs made maximum trips—around 12 trips per day—as compared to 4 to 5 trips by kaali peeli taxis and 2 trips by privately owned cars.As for school buses, there were just 700 in 2000-01 and now it is more than five times—3,775 in Mumbai. Experts said that there is a need to limit the entry of vehicles on roads or put some kind of restrictions on new registrations.“We need to introduce more buses, encourage travel by taxis over private cars and also have a good metro rail service, which is likely to take the burden off the roads in the near future. The Metro will connect from Colaba to Dahisar and Thane,” said activist Sunil Mone. In London and Singapore , the Metro has reduced the burden of private cars and encouraged mass rapid transport system.With roads bursting at the seams with a burgeoning vehicular population, parking has become a major concern. “The only solution is to offer underground and multi-tier parking lots at various places across the city. The manufacturers should also contribute towards public parking if they keep introducing more cars and bikes on roads. Huge playgrounds and open spaces can be identified for underground vehicle parking lots in Mumbai,” said Mone.“The average speed of vehicles in urban areas like Mumbai has come down to 20 kmph from 45 kmph some years back. There has been a phenomenal rise in vehicle registration at city RTOs,” said a transport official.The number of vehicles hitting city roads daily was close to 700.