Nano? Na, No!

More than 2 lakh bookings and counting: Tata Motors’ cheapest car, Nano, which will ‘hit’ Indian roads in July, is being awaited alarmingly eagerly by an ever-increasing and impatient breed of wannabe motorists. As an owner and driver of a Santro car, why should I get worked up?

Simply because, my dear fellow-motorist, with more and more cars fighting for scarcer and scarcer road space, I’ll get to wait longer in my car as I drive around the city (Tip for carmakers: instead of offering free fuel or service, give a few kilometers of unclogged road space to each new buyer). And as I wait longer inside the car, I’ll consume more fuel, cooling myself and warming the planet in the bargain.

But then, it’s better to be inside an AC car than venture outside in this heat. The other day I happened to pass by a largish car and got a shock from the heated fumes emanating from its body. No wonder I cursed under my breath and vowed to return to the cool confines of my own fuel-guzzler!

Sitting inside, I peer out at the fellow car-toons trying to honk their cars ahead in a sea of automobiles (looking at their faces, you can tell how desperately they want their honks to yield an extra inch of road space ahead – especially at toll gates and busy intersections). Some of them frown at me for not sharing their honking traits or urgency tactics.

My thoughts invariably turn to the Metro rail network. When fully operational, will it reduce the number of cars on the road at any time? I doubt it. Rather, it might add more commuters in Delhi – with thousands and thousands more flooding the trains from within the city as well as the neighboring regions. What Metro might do is mitigate the impact of more Nanos on the road – even if only to a nano extent!

As I pointed out in an earlier post, I’m eager to either get rid of my car or use it less frequently (that’s why Nano-like developments get me in knots). But in addition to the Metro, Delhiites would also need a better bus and taxi network to fill the gaps not served by train. The government has already made a mess of BRT (bus rapid transport, in which buses ply in demarcated lanes). With Commonwealth Games fast approaching and the election process in the country over, one can only hope that better sense will prevail – both among the government and the car-owning public.