181,000 new vehicles registered in last 5 years

Kantipur Report KATHMANDU, July 30 - Regular traffic jams inside the Valley are no surprise, but if one considers the increase in number of vehicles, and compares it to the increase in the length of roads inside the valley, there is but one conclusion: there are more vehicles in the valley than what the roads can handle. While 2004-05 saw 23,749 new vehicles registered in the zone, 2008-09 saw nearly double that amount, 50,090 new vehicles being registered. In fact, there were around 235,000 vehicles registered in Bagmati till 2003-04, but in the last five years itself, a staggering 181,000 new vehicles have been registered. Also, Bagmati accounts for more than half of all the vehicles in the country itself. Metropolitan Traffic Police Superintendent Rabi Raj Shrestha said, “The number of vehicles inside the valley is easily more than what its roads can take.” He claimed that if all the vehicles inside the Valley came on the streets together, there wouldn’t be any space at all. Strangely, the Department of Roads does not have the data regarding the increase in the length of roads in the last five years. However, the Budget this year stated that a measly 62 km of roads were added across the whole country in the first eight months of fiscal year 2008-09, whereas in the last year itself, 102,570 new vehicles were registered in the country. Data on the Department of Road’s website states there was a mere 8.57 percent growth in the Valley’s roads in the two years between 2002 and 2004. Sharad Chandra Paudyal, director-general at Department of Transport Management denies that the Valley’s roads are overcrowded. He blames the traffic management rather than the length of the roads. “The traffic management should be systematic. Drivers should park vehicles at the right place and the traffic police should manage the situation better.” Suraj Sigdel, senior divisional engineer at the Department of Roads said, “Roads have not been increased in terms of length. Only the maintenance is done.”