Car, bike sales hit record high in Sept

Bengaluru: Vehicles are literally flying out of dealer showrooms. While this trend in Bengaluru could gladden the auto industry, it’s a worry for policy-makers chalking out plans to decongest the city. The number of new vehicles hitting the roads is touching record levels, threatening to slow down the city’s pace even further.
RTOs in Bengaluru registered a mind-boggling 46,513 new vehicles in September 2014, over 8,000 more than 38,136 in September 2013.In October 2014, the number of two-wheelers and cars was 45,647, against 44,044 in 2013. The department is yet to break up the statistics for last month.
RTO officials say the October-November surge in sales is not surprising, given the huge offers and discounts automobile manufacturers line up for the festival season. The September 2014 figure, though, could be an all-time record.
Rame Gowda, transport commissioner, Karnataka, said: “It’s true to trend: the September-October festival season sees an increase in new vehicle registrations, while November and December are usually lean. Increasing job and business opportunities is the simplest way to explain why every household in Bengaluru wants a car or two-wheeler. Inflation under control and downward spiral in fuel costs could be the other reasons.”
Gowda cites the number of new cars going up to buttress his claim of affordability. Bengaluru, in fact, has bucked the national trend of a dip in car sales, which went down by a marginal 1.03% year-on-year in September 2014, according to statistics released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
Between April and October this year, 59,000 new cars were already registered. “Five months are left of this year and we might create a record in new car registrations,” said transport officials.
This rise in vehicular population is showing on city roads. Traffic movement has been reduced to a crawl, experts point out. A recent study shows traffic speed has come down from 35kmph to 9.2kmph in nine years.
MN Sreehari, former adviser to the government on transportation, said: “Travel patterns and urban mobility needs are changing every month in cities, including Bengaluru. The infrastructure shortcomings will never be filled. Even if the Metro is functional, the number of vehicles will reduce by 15%-18% along the alignment but elsewhere, the situation remains the same. Adding more buses is also not the solution.
“Bengaluru has 14,000km of roads -- 60% of them narrow – and they can take only 20 lakh vehicles. The government will have to come up with a policy to disincentivize registration of private vehicles if the congestion problem has to be tackled,” he added.