Delhi's Vehicle Count Surpasses Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai Combined

NEW DELHI: At more than 1.5 crore, the number of registered vehicles in Delhi matches the combined total of registered vehicles in the three metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai, road transport ministry data has revealed. This highlights the immense pressure on Delhi’s roads.

This problem of congestion gets aggravated in the national capital as lakhs of vehicles enter Delhi every day from neighbouring cities in the National Capital Region (NCR). In a written reply, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday that the four mega cities have nearly 3.1 crore vehicles, with nearly 90% of these (more than 2.7 crore) being private vehicles. Delhi accounts for nearly 52% of the private vehicles registered in these cities, the data show.

Responding to a question on whether easy and cheap vehicle loans from banks are contributing to the increased ownership of private vehicles and the steps taken to discourage this trend, the minister said, “Banks take credit decisions as per their Board approved policies subject to overarching regulatory guidelines, including the instruction contained in RBI’s master circular on ‘Loans and Advances -- Statutory and other Restrictions’, and to meet legitimate credit needs of the customers”.

Recently, the ministry informed a parliamentary committee, which had taken up the issue of air and water pollution in Delhi-NCR, that the region, including Delhi, has around 3.3 crore registered vehicles, of which nearly 2.2 crore have valid registration and fitness level. It also said that Delhi-NCR has been at the forefront of adopting BS emission norms when compared to pan-India timelines. Nearly 85 lakh vehicles in the entire region comply with BS-VI norms.

The growing number of vehicles in Delhi not only contributes to traffic congestion but also exacerbates air pollution levels. The government has been taking several measures to address these issues, including the implementation of more stringent emission norms and promoting public transportation. However, the challenge remains significant, and sustained efforts are required to mitigate the environmental and traffic-related problems in the national capital.