The Automobile Craze

One of the main causes of traffic mess is the unusually large number of vehicles moving on the roads in the entire Kashmir valley especially in the city of Srinagar. It is reported that in early forties of the last century, there were only 45 or so cars in Srinagar. However, at present the entire valley and especially the city of Srinagar is being overrun by automobiles of all kinds. As given in the Traffic Department website, the total number of registered vehicles in Kashmir up to March, 2018 is 660627. This includes 228957 cars and 275683 two wheelers. The city of Srinagar has 107403 cars and 141437 two wheelers. To own an automobile has become a virtual craze. The worst part is that people are trying to own bigger and bigger vehicles. There seems to be a craze to acquire bigger and bigger automobiles to run on roads which do not even qualify to be called virtual lanes! To drive these vehicles on our roads is virtually an injustice to these poor vehicles. These are not meant for our roads which are virtually lanes compared to the motorways and other highways in the west or for that matter in the Middle East, like Dubai. Again some of the vehicles are too expensive. One has seen some Range Rovers on our roads which would be in the range of crore and a half. We are now waiting for a Rolls Royce! The worst thing about these huge vehicles is inability to find a parking place. Driving such vehicles on Srinagar roads is nothing but a way to show off! The other vehicles are mostly sponsored by banks which are advancing loans for anything under the sun. There does not seem to be any limit on the number of vehicles. In fact almost all the families have two to three cars! Every person desires to own his own car and does not want to share it with others. This has become possible because there is no restriction from banks on advancing loans for automobiles. Normally, the Traffic Department should be ascertaining the capacity of our roads especially in the city of Srinagar regarding the number of vehicles which can be safely accommodated. Leaving aside the private cars, there are commercial and other vehicles which too number a couple of hundred thousand! Then comes the security forces vehicles which have no count! If we are truly interested in sorting out the traffic mess, we have to take a view about the number of vehicles which our roads can accommodate. And from the peoples’ side we have to come out of the Automobile Craze!