Gujarat's urban roads not designed for so many cars
Feeling exasperated due to heavy congestion during peak hours on city roads? It's not without reason. In 2024, the city (Ahmedabad and Ahmedabad East RTOs) added 560 two-wheelers and 208 four-wheelers daily. This amounts to addition of approximately one new two-wheeler every three minutes and one four-wheeler every seven minutes.
To put the figure in perspective, the 2012 numbers for the same were 499 and 128 respectively, indicating rise of 62.5 per cent in daily registration of four-wheelers and 12.2 per cent for two-wheelers in 12 years.
Surat in comparison recorded a moderate rise with daily two-wheeler registrations increasing from 335 to 384 and four-wheelers from 69 to 84 in 12 years, added the report.
The figures are quoted in the recently-released 'Report of the High-Level Committee on Urban Planning' by the Urban Development & Urban Housing Department of the govt of Gujarat. The report highlighted that Gujarat added 18 lakh new vehicles in 2024 including 12 lakh two-wheelers and 3.5 lakh four-wheelers. In comparison, early 2000s saw the growth of about 41,000 vehicles in a year.
The disproportionate growth of private vehicles puts immense pressure on transport infrastructure, causing congestion, longer travel times, higher emissions and a deteriorating quality of urban life,' the report states.
In contrast, just 4,000 buses are added every year in Gujarat, which underscores the alarming disparity between investment in private and public transport. The disproportionate growth of private vehicles puts immense pressure on transport infrastructure, causing congestion, longer travel times, higher emissions and a deteriorating quality of urban life,' the report states.
The report flags the city's unpreparedness for such a burgeoning population of cars and motorcycles. 'The trend means that in the three or four years, these numbers in Ahmedabad will match registrations in Bangalore (300 cars/day in 2024) and Delhi by 2031 (500 cars/day in 2024). There is no way that our city infrastructure is geared to accommodate such growth, which will result in total gridlock,' the report reads.
Prof Shivanand Swamy, professor emeritus at Cept University and lead author of the section on urban mobility with Prof Shalini Sinha, Keshav Verma (retired IAS officer) and Minal Shetty, told TOI that the roads of Gujarat cities like Ahmedabad are not designed for such high numbers of cars.
"Vehicle composition has been changing over the past few years due to many factors and now we are starting to feel the effect, especially during peak hours. It is a multi-pronged problem with requirements for parking space and more infrastructure such as flyovers. Eventually, they do not provide definite solutions - we must look at an efficient public transport system," he said.
Prof Swamy added that in many European countries, the per person space available is 3-4 metres, compared to which we have about 0.6 metres in several Indian cities.
"Compared to 80-90 buses per 1 lakh people in countries with good public transport, we lag behind by big margin. We may need more than 3,000 buses in the next five or six years or equivalent infrastructure, to serve our growing population and de-congest our roads," he said.
The report highlights issues such an increase in road traffic accidents (RTAs) and deteriorating air quality among other effects of the high vehicle population.
Some recommendations of experts are statutory planning for urban transport, coordinating urban transport intervention through a central body, strengthening transport planning by state or local govt and improved connectivity between regions.
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