Popularity of personal vehicles responsible for many problems:Reddy

New Delhi, Mar 21 (UNI) Union Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy today said due to the growing popularity of personal motor vehicles, Indian cities are facing a severe problem of growing congestion and deteriorating air quality.

Like all other developing countries, Indian cities were facing a severe problem of growing congestion and deteriorating air quality.

This had largely happened due to the growing popularity of personal motor vehicles, led by the very rapid growth in the popularity of two wheelers, he said while inaugurating a conference on Alternative Technologies for Public Transport.

''While this is a good sign to the extent that it demonstrates the growing income levels in urban India, the adverse consequences have been felt on the health of the people and their quality of life,'' he said.

Economic activities had also been hampered due to reduced mobility and the impact on our oil consumption, as well as on our foreign exchange outflows, have been rather severe, he added.

While these were the problems of today, our projections indicated that in the next 25 years the population of urban India would double, Mr Reddy said and added that a vastly improved public transport system was the best remedy for these problems.

''On a per capita basis, public transport occupies less road space, emits fewer pollutants and consumes less energy compared to a personal motor vehicle.'' People had to, therefore, be persuaded into using public transport in a bigger way instead of using their personal motor vehicle... This was not going to be easy, as good quality public transport would be an essential requirement for such a shift to take place, the minister further said.

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