The total vehicular strength in Ernakulam district is over 10 lakh, and Kochi city has the major share of it, according to a recent study by Dr N.S. Srinivasan, an expert on traffic and transportation sector.
Dr Srinivasan who presented a paper on traffic and transport problems of Kochi at the Vision 2030 seminar, organised by the Greater Cochin Development Authority in Kochi last week, indicated that the vehicle population in Kochi is growing by 10 per cent per annum.
This means, Kochi will have over 14 lakh vehicles by 2021, accounting for an additional 8 lakh vehicles on the city roads.
However, the population in Kochi is only increasing by less than one per cent, which will lead to a huge imbalance between the number of vehicles and population.
Presently, the population in the city is around 6 lakh.
And given the birth rate trend, it will be around 6.2 lakh in 2021. For a 20,000 rise in population, the vehicular growth is expected to be around 8 lakh.
“The observed average 16-hour traffic on main roads in the central part of the city has about 50,000 to 60,000 passenger car units now. Most of the intersections carry peak hour traffic of over 10,000 passenger car units and these numbers are set to go up steeply by 2021”, said Dr Srinivasan.
The numbers also indicate that Kochi is set to witness total chaos in another 10 years going by its vehicle-buying spree.
“If we do not take initiatives right now and build road corridors and ring roads, we should be ready to face a huge turmoil on our city roads,” Dr Srinivasan added.
The legislators and experts who spoke at the seminar had also hinted that Kochi would suffer if the Metro project was being implemented without connecting it with the ring road project.
However, with the road project still being in its infancy, Kochi is all set to have a chaotic traffic future.