Bengaluru stands top in number of private vehicles on road, surpassing Delhi: Report

Bengaluru now stands as an Indian city with the highest number of private vehicles, surpassing the national capital, New Delhi, according to a report in The Times of India. India’s Silicon Valley, which often suffers from severe traffic jams, has roughly 23 lakh private cars in the city.

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According to the report, Delhi has always been at the top in terms of most private vehicles, and in 2023, the number of private vehicles drastically went down after the Delhi Transport Department's order where it directed the owners of old vehicles to scrap and deregister them. As of March 2023, Delhi had 79.5 lakh vehicles, out of which 20.7 lakh were private vehicles. The number of private vehicles in Bengaluru is higher as the city had 23.1 lakh private vehicles, surpassing the national capital.

In 2022, Bengaluru was ranked as the second most congested city globally, according to specialist in geolocation technologies, TomTom. TomTom stated that it took 29 minutes and 9 seconds to travel 10km in Bengaluru city centre in 2022. London ranks first with an average of 36 minutes and 20 seconds to travel 6.2 miles (10 km) in the centre of the capital city in 2022. Dublin which is Ireland's capital, Japanese town of Sapporo and Milan in Italy, rank third, fourth and fifth respectively, according to study.

Earlier, Karnataka deputy CM DK Shivakumar said that high number of vehicles is one of the major reasons for damages on roads. He said, “On average, close to 2,000 new vehicles are getting registered in Bengaluru. These many vehicles plying on the roads damage them naturally. Fixing the roads with white topping will give the endurance of 30 to 40 years to these roads,”