It is evident that with the escalation in population and growth in vehicles, the claim for parking spaces, usually at “no cost” has resulted in high volume of private vehicles on urban roads.
Only vehicles meeting certain exhaust gas standards are allowed to enter the inner city area. Vehicles with particularly high emission levels are banned since February 2010.
I was riding on a bus which was trying to find a route through two-wheelers, cars and poor pedestrians through the core city area of Pune hoping to reach our destination in time. It was early morning and we were already facing heavy congestion. I was reading the Times of India (dated 5th Nov. ’09) and an article titled “Traffic Dept. turns its attention to Peth areas” caught my eye since it came as a pleasant surprise: it talked about “congestion charges” for automobiles!
