The number of vehicles on the road has crossed 42.13 lakh on Mumbai roads; no wonder traffic jams have gone from bad to worse. This is 10.3 percent of the total number of vehicles in Maharashtra standing at 4.09 crore. This is as documented by the Maharashtra government’s Economic Survey 2022. On the positive side, the number of battery-operated or electric vehicles has seen a considerable jump in the past few years.
Fully charged E-vehicles
In some good news, it seems that people are moving towards buying e-vehicles. And this is evident by the total number of e-vehicles registered in Regional Transport Offices (RTOs). As of December 2021, there were 46040 e-vehicles registered across Maharashtra. But what is more important is the trajectory of e-vehicles getting registered over the past 5 years.
In 2017-18, the state made a humble start by registering 1418 e-vehicles. This was around the time when e-vehicles were slowly entering the market. In 2018-19 there were 4958 e-vehicles and 5050 e-vehicles that were registered in 2019-20 in different RTOs across Maharashtra. The pandemic too didn’t deter the registration of e-vehicles as during 2020-21, there were 7544 e-vehicles registered.
Interestingly in 2021-22 (the financial year is yet to end), the RTOs have already seen a spurt in registrations at 18807 e-vehicles. The sources in RTOs claim that with heavy discounts and offers being provided against e-vehicles, people are keen on buying e-vehicles. The transport experts working in the field of e-vehicles claim that the government should extend the discounts and offers which are currently until March-end. And that the authorities should expedite the process of building and creating infrastructure for e-vehicles.
No space on Mumbai roads
“It is a good sign if people are moving towards e-vehicles and it’s a welcome sign as it will certainly reduce pollution. However there is a need to control and reduce the number of vehicles on road and also accelerate the completion of Metro rail corridors,” said AV Shenoy, transport expert and member of Mumbai Mobility Forum.
As of January 2022, there are 4.09 crore vehicles in Maharashtra of which close to 42.13 lakh vehicles are in Mumbai itself. Out of these, there has been an increase of 4.9 percent in 2-wheelers, light motor cars and jeeps have gone up by 3.5 percent while there is a considerable drop in private buses by 31 percent. Mumbai is expected to see an increase of 4.1 percent in 2022 as compared to 2021.
