'Oxford of the East' has more vehicles than people

Pune officially has more cars than humans.

Traffic jam on JM road in Pune, India. Source: Getty

The Indian city of Pune, often nicknamed the 'Oxford of the East' for its educational institutions, has a vehicle population that has outnumbered its human population. 

The number of registered vehicles in Pune stands at around 36.2 lakhs (3.62 million) according to the Regional Transport Office, while the city's human population is around 35 lakhs (3.5 million).  All kinds of vehicles were included in the statistics - including two and three wheelers.

Pune street scene. Source: Supplied

SBS Hindi spoke to Assistant Editor at DNA Newspaper Dhaval Kulkarni who lives in Mumbai but is originally from Pune.

Dhaval Kulkarni says that as Pune's population grew, the public transport system did not keep pace, instead, people had to rely on either auto rickshaws or their own vehicles.

Vehicles move slowly at a traffic intersection after the end of a two-week experiment to reduce the number of cars to fight pollution in in New Delhi. Source: AAP

"At one point, Pune was known as a city of bicycles, so the roads cannot take the burden of increasing number of vehicles," he says.

Work on two metro routes has begun, however, and there is a proposal for a third metro route.

Mr Kulkarni adds "that's why we can hope that Pune will soon have an adequate transport system and people, who today have to rely on private vehicles, that reliance will reduce a little".

Maruti Suzuki cars parked at the company's stock yard at Manesar, near New Delhi, India. Source: AAP

IT and engineering hub

Mr Kulkarni says that Pune has a strong middle and upper middle class because of the IT and engineering industries, and, therefore, as the city becomes more prosperous, the number of two and four wheelers also increases.

Dhaval Kulkarni tells SBS Hindi that Pune is known as the 'Oxford of the East' as it has a lot of government and private educational institutions.

He adds that sometimes the students who study in these institutes come from other cities in Maharashtra or other states and they could be more comfortable having their own vehicles; this could also perhaps be one of the reasons for the increased number of vehicles.

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