Chennai’s vehicle population rivals Tamil Nadu’s count in 2000

It seems like an exponential rise in the city’s traffic scene. Chennai at present has a vehicle population that equals the number of vehicles the entire state had in 2000. The total number of vehicles in TN in that year was 49 lakh. Chennai has the same number of vehicles now, with one lakh new vehicles hitting the roads every quarter. 

While the vehicle population has grown by leaps and bounds, there hasn’t been a corresponding increase in the strength of traffic policemen in the city, to manage such a huge transit of vehicles. Currently around 3,500 traffic policemen are left to man 49 lakh vehicles, that is one traffic cop for 1,400 vehicles. 

“It’s difficult to control the increasing number of vehicles. We do not have a mechanism in place to control the registration of new vehicles. We have not taken any steps to phase out vehicles which are older than 15 years,” a traffic cop said. 

Chennai’s road widths have remained the same and are not designed to take a huge flow of traffic. The city also has the largest number of two-wheelers in the country. Out of 49 lakh vehicles plying, around 36 lakh are two-wheelers.