The car mania

AS PUBLISHED IN FREE PRESS DATED 01/03/2011

As admitted in the Economic survey 2011 presented in the parliament, our  high trade deficit burden, though partly  relieved  by uncertain short term foreign investments is a matter of serious concern. It is expected to reach beyond 3% of GDP by the end of this fiscal. Last time in 1991, when it crossed this figure, we as a country were at the threshold of defaulting on our external debt. The major reason for this imbalance is our import bill dominated by its crude oil component. India currently imports 75% of its domestic consumption of crude oil. Oil ministry has also voiced its concern, in its strategic document, on the growing dependence on imported oil.

The growth of personal car segment under the patronage of liberalized policies of government have resulted to this car(n)age. In metros, every grown up earning individual is having a car. At other centers it may be one car per family. Unlike mobile and computer revolution, this car revolution has only added to our problems. It leads to traffic jams on the already congested roads. There is no parking space available in busy markets and at home / apartments. You will find cars parked overnight on roadsides in all the lanes.  It is like issuing unlimited tickets for limited general compartments ( in trains) and let the people fight it out for space. Apart from this, we need to import crude oil to feed these cars out of our precious foreign exchange reserves. Diesel variants are also becoming popular in personal car segment to take advantage of subsidized fuel.

In this backdrop, Government should improve and encourage use of public transport, Increase taxes in personal car segment, introduce congestion tax on vehicles, make it mandatory for the buyers to arrange parking space before purchase of the new car. It should also promote non fuel based personal transports like bicycle, as is done in china and many other countries.

BHARAT SHARMA

C-44/8 ,Bargad, Rishinagar Extension

Ujjain