Mumbai HC suggests one-car-per-family rule to ease traffic congestion

Mumbai: Seeking a comprehensive policy to tackle the traffic congestion in Mumbai, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday said the Maharashtra government should consider measures such as restricting the number of cars per family and promotion of inland water transport.

A division bench headed by Justice V M Kanade directed the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the state Urban Development Ministry and the traffic police to sit together and come up with a "holistic policy" on traffic issues.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation on shortage of designated parking spaces in the city. "These days every family has at least two cars...This should be restricted to just one car per family," it said.

"Unauthorised parking due to lack of space is a very serious problem in Mumbai and is the cause of much traffic congestion....A large number of private vehicles enter the city every morning and leave in the evening, but they have no space for parking through the day. The government cannot sit on the problem anymore," the court said.

"There was a time about a decade ago when one could commute between Dadar and south Mumbai in just 20 minutes. Doing so is unimaginable now. It takes three hours to travel from Juhu to the airport," it said.

Promotion of "inland water transport" may be just what the city needed, said the judges.

"While it will not solve all your problems, water transport can act as a complementary mode of transport," the bench said, asking the state government to inform about its feasibility at the next hearing after four weeks.