Aniruddha Said:
Recently, we are hearing a hue and cry from some corners that if Tata leaves West Bengal along with their Nano car project, we will have to regret in future. The "threat" of Tata Motors that they are going to lose their patience if the situation (read agitation) continues and will leave West Bengal soon, has created immense pressure upon those who took their stand against Tata's small car project all along. However, the Nano controversy is being reduced to the question of giving back 400 acres of land to the unwilling farmers. At this crucial juncture, we would like to express our concern from a different point of view.
Setting up a small car industry is dangerous for the millions of pedestrians because with the increasing number of private cars, the number of road accidents increases side by side, especially in a Third World country, where traffic management is very poor and inefficient. We would like to put forward our points with statistics to establish the fact.
First, it has been seen that the number of accidents occurring per 10,000 vehicles in a Third World country is 10-15 times higher than that in a First World country. So, if 10 road accidents happen per 10,000 vehicles in a European city, it would be 100-150 in an Indian city. At present, in India every year 75,000 people have to die as victims of road traffic accident, which is highest in the world. Besides this, another 3,50,000 people have to suffer serious injury; most of them become paralysed for a long time, and even forever. Apart from this huge wastage of human resource, our country has to afford Rs 5,000 crore every year for road accidents.
Particularly in West Bengal, according to the latest information, 13,000 accidents took place in 2006. Only in the small jurisdiction of Kolkata Police area, on an average 450 people die every year in road accidents, most of them pedestrians.
Secondly, right now in India a person dies in every 6.5 minutes due to road traffic accidents. According to an estimate, within a few years the situation will go like this: A person will have to die in road accident in every 3.25 minutes due to the increase of middle-class owned private cars. So, it becomes clear that there is a direct relation between road accident and number of vehicles, especially in a Third World country, where the number of pedestrians is much more than any First World country, along with a poor traffic management system.
Thirdly, there were 80,000 vehicles plying in the streets of Kolkata in 1980. Then, the total road space of the city was 6.5 per cent. In 2008, it is estimated that 14,00,000 vehicles are plying in the city streets, where the total road space has become 7.3 per cent. So, in the last 28 years, despite narrowing the pedestrians' pavements, building flyovers and constructing the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, the total space has increased by 0.08 per cent. Side by side, the number of vehicles has increased by 1650 per cent! This abnormal ration will increase more at geometric progression if Tata and others sell the cars at 1-1.5 lakh rupees. Will not the traffic system of the city collapse then? We may think that it is not difficult increase more roadways by building more flyovers and constructing two-tier or three-tier lanes. But, it is not that easy. It has been observed that after building the biggest flyover on AJC Bose Road, congestion has increased at both ends. Because, for the small increase in road space with building the flyover, the number of private cars has increased more. So, a flyover can hardly solve the problem.
Still, if we think that more flyovers can ease traffic congestion of our city, we have answer another question -- after availing the flyover, where will the huge number of vehicles go? They have to ultimately avail the narrow lanes of densely populated localities. Not only that, many of these cars will be parked in the narrow lanes and on pavements, as we see now. And day by day it is becoming risky to walk freely or safely even in a residential area, especially for school-goers and senior citizens. This geometrical rate of increase of vehicles will contribute nothing but making pedestrians' life hell. According to an estimate, there were 6,34,836 vehicles in the city streets on 31 December 1997. It almost doubled to 12,02,983 on 31 December 2006. Interestingly, one cannot put up the excuse of rising population of the city for the increase in the number of vehicles. Because, in the state assembly, recently the housing minister said that in Kolkata the population had decreased by 10 per cent (as the middle-class Bengalis have to leave the city gradually).
In many European countries, the number of private cars is being controlled strictly now. Side by side, they find making the public transport system developed and economical is the only solution for traffic problems, as one public vehicle can carry as many people as 16 private cars.
In case of Kokata, we have been able to increase 0.08 per cent road space in the last 28 years (even at the cost of pedestrians' pavements). So, it is next to impossible to reach the international standard of road space -- 33 per cent of the total city area. Then, we have to choose one of the options -- either to accept more accidents and congestion, or to restrict the private cars strictly.
It is not only the concern of farmers of Singur, it is more of our concern to say No to Nano, as millions of urban pedestrians' lives are at stake.
Posted On 8/13/2008 7:40:10 AM