Now, I’m not against the common man. I do not say that car should only belong to the elite and wealthy people; it should be affordable by one and all. But will the same common man buying the 1 lakh Rs. car, be willing to pay congestion charges for driving in the city like Delhi, Bangalore or Pune, where traffic is horrible?
It’s easy to make assumptions that life in a metro city is easy. We have all the facilities, we have the entire infrastructure. Will the same infrastructure keep on serving the mass migration that will not stop?
An Auto Rickshaw in India may cost around 80,000 Rs. (or even less) and seats 3-4 passengers, depending upon the city traffic rules. One year after the launch of Tata Nano car, it is sure that there will be many sellers who would sell their car and the buyers will buy it second hand. These second hand cars will be available for around 60 to 70K. Don’t we see a possibility that Autos may be replaced by these cars? How about the traffic chaos? If the authority comes and imposes a congestion charge for such a thing, will the same people be willing to pay it? And these proposals are already in place in cities like Pune.
Take this recent example:
The Delhi Gurgaon Highway has been opened recently with Toll charges. Since the very first day itself, it is a complete mess, because the traffic is huge. The authorities are saying that the highway was supposed to cater 160,000 cars by 2016. Right now in 2008, the no. of cars on that highway is in excess of 140,000. What will happen in 2016?
The cost of relocation is not small. It’s easy to say that roads are good, so I don’t mind travelling 15 Kms. to office. How about the possibility of meeting with an accident? This is not US or UK, where you have CCTV camera installed, so that you can book the culprits who have hit you.
I was in Bangalore few months back. There is a big IT park near Koramangala Area which houses companies like First American, etc. It was Saturday evening, hardly any traffic on the small road connecting the IT Park to the main city. Yet, 3 traffic cops were standing on that road and stopping each & every biker. The motive was to collect bribes. IT Engineers, loads of salaries, deep pockets, they will not hesitate to pay anything you demand. Saturday evening where the traffic is high on main areas like MG road, Brigade Road and others, these cops were having a gala time with the Saturday workers in the IT Park. Who is there to listen?
Nothing in this world comes for free. The salaries may have given us less of money, but more of tendency to get big loans for big terms.
| It’s easy to look at metro cities with loads of facilities, we fail to quantify the cost of living and relocation. People who live in Dadar area of Mumbai know the plight of traffic. I find it easy to reach the Delhi airport from my city by train followed by cab, instead of going to Mumbai airport from a central Mumbai location. US citizens are already learning the lessons of taking home loans on mortgage. Lets not forget to analyze our own situation before getting into such long term commitments with costly assumptions! | Table of Contents |
No comments:
Post a Comment