Kolkata tops India with 2,448 cars per km; Most roads cross vehicle-carrying capacity

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Kolkata Police have revealed that Kolkata boasts the highest vehicular density among all Indian metros, with 2,448 vehicles per kilometre of road. This finding echoes the lived experience of many Kolkatans, who are grappling with increasingly prolonged commutes due to mounting traffic congestion. Over the past five years, average trip times within the city have doubled, aligned with a significant surge in personal vehicles and a decline in public transportation, primarily attributed to the pandemic.

Kolkata presently accommodates approximately 45.3 lakh vehicles traversing 1,850 km of road space. In contrast, Delhi, despite having substantially more vehicles (1 crore 32 lakh), enjoys 33,198 km of roads, yielding a vehicular density of fewer than 400 per kilometre. Kolkata's vehicular growth has been primarily propelled by the surge in personalized vehicles, especially during the pandemic.

The city is now home to 6.5 lakh two-wheelers and 10.7 lakh four-wheelers registered within its limits. This upward trajectory coincided with the weakening of public transport, as previously reported by TOI. The majority of Kolkata's total road length of 1,850 km consists of two-laned roads.

Experts assert that the city requires six-lane roads to accommodate the current influx of vehicles. An officer from the Bengal Traffic-Transportation Planning Directorate noted that most city roads have already exceeded saturation levels. Ranjit Gadgil, a transport expert from Parisar, an advocacy group for sustainable mobility, noted that this vehicular density issue is pervasive across major Indian cities.