5.7 lakh vehicles enter Delhi daily, equal to number of vehicles registered in a year

A cross-border traffic survey conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found that the number of personal and passenger vehicles that enter Delhi daily is close to or more than the total number of vehicles that get registered in Delhi in a year.

A cross-border traffic survey conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found that the number of personal and passenger vehicles that enter Delhi daily is close to or more than the total number of vehicles that get registered in Delhi in a year.

The total number of vehicles that enter Delhi daily is almost equal to the number that is registered in the city in a year.(Sakib Ali/ HT file photo)

The vehicles surveyed included cars, SUVs, two-wheelers, taxis and buses but excluded trucks and light commercial vehicles.

CSE had commissioned a survey to a private firm to count real time traffic at nine entry points into Delhi in June last year. Video recording of the spots was done and all the vehicles were counted category-wise.

In the first round, CSE analysed only the truck numbers. In the second, both personal and passenger vehicles were analysed.

“As personal vehicles do not pay toll, there is no estimate of the number of total vehicles that entered Delhi from these nine locations. According to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, these nine entry points are responsible for more than 70% of all incoming truck traffic. Though CSE has considered a similar ratio for personal and passenger modes for extrapolating total entry from all the 124 entry points, this can be an underestimation,” a statement issued by CSE said.

The survey at nine entry points showed that around 3.07 lakh cars and 1.27 lakh two-wheelers entered Delhi daily.

“If this is taken as 70% of the total traffic from all 124 entry points, then the total number of cars, SUVs and two-wheelers from all entry points can be as much as 5.65 lakh. The Economic Survey of Delhi for the year 2014-15 shows 5.69 lakh total vehicles were registered in the city that year. The total number of vehicles that enter Delhi daily is almost equal to the number that is registered in the city,” the statement said.

“Delhi’s battle against pollution, congestion and energy guzzling can get increasingly more difficult if its own explosive motorisation gets aggravated by the huge daily influx of vehicles from outside. An equal numbers of vehicles are going out of Delhi daily contributing to pollution in the NCR towns as well. This new analysis reconfirms that ineffective public policy on public transport connectivity is increasing dependence on personal vehicles, leading to enormous pollution and ill-health in Delhi-NCR,” said CSE’s executive director, Anumita Roychowdhury.

The organisation has suggested making affordable, comfortable and reliable public transport services a priority and upping fuel quality to battle air pollution and vehicle density in Delhi-NCR.