MUMBAI: The density of private cars in Mumbai soared by 18% in just two years, making it the most car-congested city in the country. The city has 510 cars for every km of road, almost five times higher than the corresponding number in Delhi, 108.

Pune is the next most-dense city with 359 cars per km, ahead of 319 per km in Kolkata, 297 in Chennai and 149 in Bangalore, show statistics from the respective state transport departments.

Mumbai’s high car density is mainly because of lack of road space. While Mumbai’s private car population is less than a third of Delhi’s, the city has just 2,000km of roads as compared with 28,000km in the national capital.

Burgeoning vehicle population and low road space in Mumbai contributes to enormous traffic jams, pollution and unauthorised parking on roads, as per statistics from Maharashtra transport department.

“Mumbai has been bursting at the seams past few years, and if there is no control over the purchase or mobility of private cars across the city, commuting by road will be a nightmare,” warned transport expert Ashok Datar, who has been advocating the use of buses for transportation in suburbs and island city.

In mid-2016, car density in Mumbai was 430 cars per km, which has now gone up to 510, according to Maharashtra transport ministry data. This has taken the total number of registered private cars to 10.2 lakh on city roads, roughly 28% of the total vehicular population in the city, which stands at 36 lakh, officials said.

A recent study by Mumbai Environmental Social Network, a think tank, showed that among private vehicles, 49% of road space is occupied by private cars of all types, including SUVs. This is one of the key reasons for increasing traffic congestion, with average speed on the Western Express highway dropping to 10kmph during peak hours, and on LBS Marg to less than 8kmph.

RTO officials said the maximum car registrations were in the western suburbs which has over 5 lakh registered cars, followed by 3.3 lakh in island city and 1.7 lakh private cars in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai.

Officials said that upmarket areas in eastern suburbs like Powai had maximum registrations for high-end cars and SUVs past few years. Chembur was the next big suburb in the eastern side to have car registrations in almost every middle class household, the officials stated. The Eastern Freeway is a preferred route for those in Chembur as it provides a high-speed connect to SoBo and saves time by over half an hour.

RTO records further show that Colaba-Cuffe Parade had a huge vehicular population, including several commercial vehicles, as compared to the tony areas of Malabar Hill or Nepean Sea Road-Peddar Road. In the western suburbs, Andheri and Goregaon had several residential and commercial hubs where car population had swelled over the years. The next three car-congested western suburbs were Kandivli, Bandra and Borivli with a large number of households going for bigger cars that occupy more road space, an official stated.

Transport experts are alarmed by the rise in private cars, which they feel are an “impediment” for the growth of public transport in the city. They also fear that the rise in vehicles could lead to parking woes. “There is an urgent need to set up a parking authority to implement the new parking policy, and also impose congestion tax in the business hubs,” said A V Shenoy of Mumbai Transport Forum. “The arterial road should be kept free of any parking (on both sides of the road) during peak hours. It will free up road space and allow movement of 50% more vehicles, especially buses,” he said.

Transport commissioners, in the past, have been suggesting ways to control the growth of car population in Mumbai and dissuade citizens from driving in their personal vehicles. An official said the government was now focussed on setting up several Metro rail corridors which will ensure a smooth commute in near future and encourage mass public transport.

