In Kolkata, vehicle registrations rose by 18.5% post pandemic

In comparison, the number of registered motor vehicles in Kolkata was 16,30,440 in 2017 and 17,01,412 in 2018.

The uptick in vehicle registration numbers has left the Kolkata traffic department worried about traffic jams and parking problems that the surge could lead to.

While Kolkata is spread across an area of 311.68 square kilometers, its roads stretch up to 4,018 kilometres. Traffic officials claim that private vehicles account for most of the vehicular movement in the city and their rising ownership is among the main causes of parking problems at key arterial roads. Cars and two-wheelers entering the city have increased by at least 4 per cent over the past seven years, they added.

Officials are concerned that the growth in vehicle ownership without a corresponding increase in motorable road space might pose problems for urban mobility. Kolkata’s motorable road space is around 7 per cent – much behind other metropolitan cities like Delhi (23 per cent), Mumbai (17 per cent), Bengaluru (11.9 per cent).

DC (Traffic) Rupesh Kumar says innovating with road dynamics is the way out to keep up with the evolving urban mobility scene. “To ensure seamless traffic management, greater emphasis needs to be laid on improvising. We have busy roads and a dedicated traffic wing. Many of them have spent years manning traffic and are experts in traffic management. We are using an advanced signalling system in Kolkata. Under the system, all traffic signals are connected to a control room through optical fibre. We change signal timings according to the situation,” he said.

“There is a need for making dynamic changes according to priorities. We have installed cameras at places where most traffic breakdowns occurred, so that the roads could be cleared quickly. We have collaborated with Google too,” he added.

The data also shows that despite the development of roads, flyovers and private transport in recent years, the number of state-run buses didn’t increase at the same pace. In 2017, the number of public buses running in Kolkata was 3,627 and 3,697 in 2022. In contrast, the number of private cars registered in 2017 and 2022 was 5,61,933 and 6,79,762 respectively.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Kolkata-based town planning expert Partha Protim Dutta said the problems arising due to people’s dependency on private vehicles can be solved if offices could be “decentralised”. “Everyone wants to stay in Kolkata and in the heart of the city because of the proximity to their workplaces. So until offices are spread out to other areas of the city, the dependency on private vehicles will remain a challenge,” he said.

He said the decentralised development was also necessary due to Kolkata’s “ribbon development”. “Delhi has an advantage as it can be developed in any direction. They have developed Dwarka, Rohini, Gurugram, Palam and the National Capital Region. They are changing their master plan every 20 years for better planning.

On the other hand, Kolkata has witnessed ribbon development. It has the Ganga river on the West and wetlands on the east. It can only develop in the north and south,” he said.