The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, August 20, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

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More vehicles than licences
By Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 19 — Five vehicles to a driving licence holder. It is true in Haryana. For nearly 1.1 million registered vehicles until March 31, 1997, just 2.32 lakh driving licences were issued in the state.

While the state has nearly 6,000 vehicles per lakh of population (6 per cent), it has only 1,200 driving licences (1.2 per cent) for the same number of people.

One reason is that many drivers get their driving licences made either in the Union Territory of Chandigarh or in the Union Capital, New Delhi. But this number is not large enough to account for the gap between registered vehicles and the driving licences.

Another reason is that nearly 20 per cent of total vehicles registered in the state are tractors. There were 2.05 lakh tractors and 57,141 trucks registered in Haryana until March 31, 1997. Most tractor owners do not possess driving licences as required under the law.

In Punjab, not only the overall number of registered vehicles is double than that of Haryana, but deaths on roads is either the same or slightly less.

In Punjab, there are 3,87,007 tractors and 59,002 trucks.

Both in Haryana and Punjab, involvement of tractors in accidents causing deaths is negligible.

An important factor for the high casualty rate in road accidents in Haryana is the involvement of Haryana Roadways buses.

Since 1993-94, nearly 300 persons have died in bus accidents alone in Haryana. There were 795 accidents involving buses in 1996-97, killing 388 persons. In 1999-2000, the number of accidents involving Haryana Roadways buses came to 533 which accounted for 261 of 2870 road accident deaths in the state. In 1998-99, the number of accidents involving state-owned buses were 663. That year 294 persons lost their lives in bus accidents in the state.

The high incidence of fatal road accidents in Gurgaon and Faridabad has been attributed to high density of inter-state traffic as many multinational and other companies have moved from Delhi to Gurgaon and Faridabad. The number of vehicles used by commuters between Delhi and Gurgaon or Faridabad has increased. Moreover the roads connecting these towns with Delhi are not wide enough to contain the ever swelling volume of traffic. Further, because of the volume of traffic, there is little or no regulatory mechanism on these busy roads.

Quiet towns like Jind, Sirsa, Jhajjar and Narnaul have low incidence of road accidents and deaths.

For example, only 53 persons died in road accidents in Fatehabad district in 1999. The figure is 28 for first six months of the current year. In Sirsa, only 71 persons died in road accidents in 1999 while in Jhajjar, 85 and in Narnaul 84.

Accidents in Haryana

Year No. of accidents Vehicles involved Persons killed Persons injured

1966-67 335 339 140 241

1980-81 1552 1581 594 1649

1990-91 4707 5309 2118 5448

1995-96 6667 7021 2574 6808

1996-97 6571 6809 2419 6351

1997-98 7114 7571 2585 8128

1998-99 8049 8813 2823 8148

1999 8131 8131 2870 8613

2000* 4116 xxxx 1467 4349

*up to June 30, 2000

Haryana Roadways buses and accidents

Year No. of accidents Persons killed Persons injured

1993-94 922 351 788

1994-95 919 353 788

1995-96 818 352 665

1996-97 795 388 853

1997-98 704 324 716

1998-99 663 294 508

1999-00 533 261 452

No of driving licences

Year Total

1966-67 1,094

1975-76 24,230

1980-81 41,407

1990-91 1,25,529

1995-96 1,61,570

1996-97 2,32,245

Number of vehicles in Haryana

Year 2-wheeler 3-wheeler Jeeps Cars Taxis Total

1966-67 2863 831 524 1,344 212 14,265

1975-76 18,376 275 1,917 4,693 145 51,525

1980-81 48,814 527 2,317 5,890 228 1,22,782

1990-91 3,10,184 6,562 8,383 21,600 271 5,32,966

1955-96 6,13,117 12,180 26,125 63,038 500 10,65,147

1996-97 6,61,040 12,490 29,851 70,353 607 10,99,207