We have seen many an article and news clipping about the Indian Automobile Industry suffering its worst in decades.
Let's get to the bottom of it.
For a country with its urban and town road infrastructure, bursting at its seams, has any town planning been done in the recent decades for mitigating the narrow single lane roads in most cases? Baring a few new towns in the last 3-4 decades like Navi Mumbai and others where open space was never a constraint, rest of the metros, cities and towns have done very little in terms of infrastructure planning for wide roads.
The influx of 2/3 wheeler population in many of these metros, etc., are in the eye of the storm creating major chaos to the traffic issues. Their unruly behaviour in using the common shared resources are far from desired level of maturity. signal jumping is in vogue and courtesy driving is an unknown terminology in these users' vocabulary.
Users include hand/bullock/horse carts, cyclists, 2/3 wheelers, motor cars, trucks and buses and to top all these, pedestrians dodging and dancing between roads, footpaths (if existing after all encroachment from various businesses) has gone up multi-fold with not much of widening the existing roads. If any expansion is done, it is quickly gobbled by ever expanding traffic population in no time.
Thankfully, the National and State Highways has been given a lot of prominence and one can see a huge difference from the days of single lane roads to multi lane dual carriageways.
With rapid growth of economy at major metros and neo-metros there is an unprecedented migration from class 3-4 cities to these hubs, adding fuel to an already burning inferno! I have seen a spurt of agricultural tractors/tillers in my home town of Bengaluru, confirming the theory of mass migration to cities from rural towns/villages. These too, block the roads with their wide bodied trailers and more often than not being used to dump construction debris.
Now, let's take the instance of the number of motor cars (brands/variants, et al) plying on these roads. Many of these vehicles are over 10-15 years old and in any other developed country, these would have been scrapped or palmed off to third world countries as pre-used vehicles.
I had heard/read somewhere that Japan doesn't allow use of motor cars that has crossed 60,000ks on the clock. Had seen many of these old vehicles in Botswana and other African countries, to which they are exported to!!
Financial Institutions abhor from funding purchase of vehicles over 5 years old. Prevalent, even in countries like South Africa (which, I am familiar as I lived there for over a decade and a half), older vehicles are relegated to the townships away from metros, small towns, villages and thereafter cannibalised for spares at these centres and finally scrapped.
Average age of motor cars, in major metros, are less than 6 compared to over 10-12 years in India.
Fitness certification of old vehicles and also when the ownership transfers, is viewed very seriously.
'Chalta hain' attitude 'Nahin chalta hain'.
I understand the aspirations of our consumers, in either emulating the B/Hollywood heroes or what they would have seen on their sojourn to a foreign country, in desiring the latest model/brand of vehicles to be owned by them, but at what cost to the Nation and Automobile Industry. Auto makers on the other hand, are keen to bring in variants and models to match the aspirations.
There is a major mismatch between the demand of and the supply for the number of models/variants that are in the market today. Understandably, India's diverse population, with equally diverse income levels, needs all these variants.
Many of these consumers have bought their vehicles just because they get easy loans for these durables, totally disregarding whether there is a need for it at all. More often than not, they don't even have parking places but along kerbside of their houses/offices.
These vehicle manufacturers and their marketing wings also try and whet the mindsets of the consumers through enticing ads, featuring glamours models.
A good move has been made, with the implementation of the Motor Vehicles Act/Bill, effective 1 September, 2019. Implementation of any law is only as good as its administration and governance. I hope this will go a long way in improving public safety.
Conclusion:
How can we, in India, deal with such policy issues in tackling the ailments of automobile industry??
Maybe, a thorough discussion is called for in making radical changes in Auto Sector Policy. Not just the motor cars, we need a policy overhaul in other motor vehicles (mainly trucks and 2/3 wheelers) as well.
There is also an urgent need to spruce up the control, compliance and enforcement mechanism to all erring users of our shared resources (Roads, Toll Booths, et al).
Let's get to the bottom of it.
For a country with its urban and town road infrastructure, bursting at its seams, has any town planning been done in the recent decades for mitigating the narrow single lane roads in most cases? Baring a few new towns in the last 3-4 decades like Navi Mumbai and others where open space was never a constraint, rest of the metros, cities and towns have done very little in terms of infrastructure planning for wide roads.
The influx of 2/3 wheeler population in many of these metros, etc., are in the eye of the storm creating major chaos to the traffic issues. Their unruly behaviour in using the common shared resources are far from desired level of maturity. signal jumping is in vogue and courtesy driving is an unknown terminology in these users' vocabulary.
Users include hand/bullock/horse carts, cyclists, 2/3 wheelers, motor cars, trucks and buses and to top all these, pedestrians dodging and dancing between roads, footpaths (if existing after all encroachment from various businesses) has gone up multi-fold with not much of widening the existing roads. If any expansion is done, it is quickly gobbled by ever expanding traffic population in no time.
Thankfully, the National and State Highways has been given a lot of prominence and one can see a huge difference from the days of single lane roads to multi lane dual carriageways.
With rapid growth of economy at major metros and neo-metros there is an unprecedented migration from class 3-4 cities to these hubs, adding fuel to an already burning inferno! I have seen a spurt of agricultural tractors/tillers in my home town of Bengaluru, confirming the theory of mass migration to cities from rural towns/villages. These too, block the roads with their wide bodied trailers and more often than not being used to dump construction debris.
Now, let's take the instance of the number of motor cars (brands/variants, et al) plying on these roads. Many of these vehicles are over 10-15 years old and in any other developed country, these would have been scrapped or palmed off to third world countries as pre-used vehicles.
I had heard/read somewhere that Japan doesn't allow use of motor cars that has crossed 60,000ks on the clock. Had seen many of these old vehicles in Botswana and other African countries, to which they are exported to!!
Financial Institutions abhor from funding purchase of vehicles over 5 years old. Prevalent, even in countries like South Africa (which, I am familiar as I lived there for over a decade and a half), older vehicles are relegated to the townships away from metros, small towns, villages and thereafter cannibalised for spares at these centres and finally scrapped.
Average age of motor cars, in major metros, are less than 6 compared to over 10-12 years in India.
Fitness certification of old vehicles and also when the ownership transfers, is viewed very seriously.
'Chalta hain' attitude 'Nahin chalta hain'.
I understand the aspirations of our consumers, in either emulating the B/Hollywood heroes or what they would have seen on their sojourn to a foreign country, in desiring the latest model/brand of vehicles to be owned by them, but at what cost to the Nation and Automobile Industry. Auto makers on the other hand, are keen to bring in variants and models to match the aspirations.
There is a major mismatch between the demand of and the supply for the number of models/variants that are in the market today. Understandably, India's diverse population, with equally diverse income levels, needs all these variants.
Many of these consumers have bought their vehicles just because they get easy loans for these durables, totally disregarding whether there is a need for it at all. More often than not, they don't even have parking places but along kerbside of their houses/offices.
These vehicle manufacturers and their marketing wings also try and whet the mindsets of the consumers through enticing ads, featuring glamours models.
A good move has been made, with the implementation of the Motor Vehicles Act/Bill, effective 1 September, 2019. Implementation of any law is only as good as its administration and governance. I hope this will go a long way in improving public safety.
Conclusion:
How can we, in India, deal with such policy issues in tackling the ailments of automobile industry??
Maybe, a thorough discussion is called for in making radical changes in Auto Sector Policy. Not just the motor cars, we need a policy overhaul in other motor vehicles (mainly trucks and 2/3 wheelers) as well.
There is also an urgent need to spruce up the control, compliance and enforcement mechanism to all erring users of our shared resources (Roads, Toll Booths, et al).
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