Post-COVID, cars have outnumbered two-wheelers in the city and the work force travelling to Chandigarh may rise from 9 lakh to 17 lakh by 2051, says the inception report submitted by Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) after analysing the future estimated demand of people travelling to the City Beautiful.
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According to the report submitted to the Chandigarh Administration, “short, medium and long-term transport improvement schemes shall be proposed to meet the estimated travel demand”.
With an aim to develop effective, efficient and eco-friendly multi-modal citywide urban transport system, RITES Limited has been engaged by the Chandigarh Administration for preparation of comprehensive mobility plan for Tricity complex.
The report was submitted on March 3 this year. The mobility plan is being prepared in compliance with MoHUA 2017 guidelines.
The report specifies the projects of workforce in the Tricity complex. The Tricity complex comprises Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Zirakpur and New Chandigarh. The data specifies that from 6.27 lakh in 2011, the workforce in the Tricity complex has risen to 9.09 lakh and the same is estimated to rise to 11.15 lakh in 2031 and up to 16.90 lakh to 2051. And thus, an increase in vehicles.
The report also mentions that the tourist inflow has already risen. “City also attracts domestic and foreign tourists and the influx has increased from 11 lakh to about 16 lakh during 2014-19 year,” it is stated.
In 2019, before the COVID period, the tourist flow was 16.08 lakh of which 44,000 were foreigners and 15.64 lakh were domestic tourists. In 2014, the domestic tourists were 10.61 lakh and foreigners were just 28,000.
Post-Covid, cars outnumbered two wheelers
Every year, Chandigarh sees more of two-wheelers being registered than cars. The RITES report specifies the trend of vehicle registrations in Chandigarh. In pre-Covid years, the two-wheeler registration always outnumbered the registration of cars. However, in post-COVID years, the registration of four-wheelers was more than the two-wheelers.
The supporting data given with it notes how year 2017 saw 46,522 vehicle registrations of which 28,561 were two-wheelers and 17,945 were cars (under LMV). In 2018 and 2019 again, the two- wheeler registration remained as 28,217 and 25,918 two-wheelers were registered respectively against 17,243 and 18,149 cars registered.
In 2020 before the lockdown and after lockdown period, the number of registration of two-wheelers almost began to come equivalent to cars gradually. That year 15,011 two-wheelers were registered and 14,238 cars were registered. It was for the first time that in year 2021, as many as 15,407 two- wheelers were registered but the registration of cars was more for the first time, that is 19,025.
According to the RITES, the Tricity complex has seen a high growth which has led to remarkable increase in motorised vehicles and consequently low modal share of public transport system.
It is specified that due to rapid increase in motor vehicles coupled with marginal increase in road infrastructure, the traffic and transportation problems have grown rapidly.
Being the administrative centre of two states and a Union Territory, the Chandigarh Tricity Complex attracts a lot of regional traffic because of which the need of an alternative means of traffic arises.
With increase in personal vehicles, City experiences traffic congestion
Existing public transport system for inter-city and intra-city movement is in the form of buses, it is stated. With the increase in number of personalised vehicles, the city is experiencing traffic congestion and parking problems.
The inception report focuses on study methodology, landuse parameters, existing transport scenario, data base generation through primary and secondary sources, its snalysis and inferences.
It is specified that the TriCity existing population is about 23 lakh and is expected to reach up to 42 lakh by 2051 whereas during the same period the employment (workforce) will rise from 9 lakh to 17 lakh.
To plan for the transport needs of the Tricity complex, the study area shall be divided into traffic zones and various primary traffic and travel surveys, including classified traffic volume counts, and origin-destination surveys will be carried out to understand the mobility behaviour of the residents.
Major surveys will include household interview surveys to understand the travel behaviour of Tricity residents, passenger terminal surveys (bus, rail and air) and outer cordon surveys to estimate the impact of regional traffic on the city infrastructure.
The data collected shall be utilised to assess the status of transport system with respect to service level benchmarks of MoHUA and transport demand model will be developed to estimate the transport demand in future years.
1323 road accidents in the last five years
The report mentions the road crashes figures of the last five years. In all, there had been over a thousand road accidents of which 440 were fatal accidents.
The data specifies that in 2017, there were a total of 342 road crashes of which 103 were fatal and 239 were non-fatal. Similarly, in 2018, there were a total of 316 accidents of which 97 were fatal and 219 were non-fatal.
In 2019, the number of accidents was pegged at 305 of which 100 were fatal accidents and 205 were non-fatal.
The numbers came down during COVID because of several people preferring to stay indoors.
In 2020, of the total 159 road crashes, there were 50 fatal and 109 non-fatal. In 2021, till December 21, a total of 201 crashes have been reported of which 111 were non-fatal and 90 were fatal.