Soon, you may have to pay for driving in peak-hour traffic!

[aniket.tiwari27]

Since this info is related to paying taxes fro driving in peak hours, thought this to be the apt section. But in case, you find this thread not suitable for this section, please feel free to move it to the more relevant one. Thanks in Advance..
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Vehicle owners may need to shell out 'congestion charges' to drive during peak hours, if a proposal by the urban development (UD) ministry is accepted by state governments.

Modelled on similar rules in London and Singapore, the ministry is considering introducing these charges in a bid to de-congest some of the busiest central business areas across cities,

In London for instance, a congestion charge is imposed in a 20-square km area around the city centre using automatic number plate-recognition cameras at 348 entry sites. Vehicle owners entering the charging zone can either pay online through mobile phones or at specific stores.
Sudhir Krishna, UD secretary had written to all the state chief secretaries to "consider adapting congestion charging system as a measure to decongest central business districts" as well as to "control pollution."
The ministry has asked states to identify the most congested areas in their cities and get a study done on various aspects of the congestion charges as per the requirement.

The technical aspects, such as the amount to be charged and where to charge it, have to be worked out by the state governments as transport is a state subject. "To start with, we may have the manual permit/coupon system as was done in Singapore when it was first introduced," Krishsna's January 15 letter to chief secretaries.

But the ministry feels that the "most desirable and effective way" would be online payment /SMS/ prepaid payment based on vehicle identification through cameras or boxes installed in cars.

If this is true - its totally unacceptable

Source : http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/soo...183000107.html

[StarrySky]

I would welcome such a move IF it is accompanied by major improvement in public transportation.

Take my city, Kochi, for instance. Kochi Metro is supposed to start functioning in 3 years' time. The govt is also discussing ways to use the waterways in/around the city to connect major points in the city. If all of this goes as planned (that's a big IF), there should be a major improvement in commuting times to the city centre. I would be happy to leave my car at a metro/boat station outside the city and take public transport for commuting to/from city centre, especially during peak hours.

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by aniket.tiwari27

Since this info is related to paying taxes fro driving in peak hours, thought this to be the apt section. But in case, you find this thread not suitable for this section, please feel free to move it to the more relevant one. Thanks in Advance..
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Proposing congestion charges is one thing and implementing it is another thing.
Unlike London and Singapore we do not top notch traffic monitoring systems and better infrastructure.

Cars are often not registered at the correct address and monitoring them and charging congestion tax will be a huge task for the authorities.
Even if they introduce monitoring system within the cars, they can be easily tampered and will be reduced to another expensive measure to reduce congestion.

The need of the hour is better infrastructure and better implementation of traffic rules.
Traffic congestion is primarily due to idiot drivers who do not follow traffic rules and block smooth flow of traffic. How often have you seen vehicles driving in wrong direction or jumping signals or blocking roads. Unless we educate the drivers on proper discipline, no amount of tax will reduce congestion.

This congestion charge will also add another problem of egoistic drivers who will drive like they own the road (just because they paid congestion charge) and cause further problems.

[amitayu]

This is ridiculous..no one drives during peak hours amidst all the traffic chaos for fun...we do coz we are compelled to. Going to office during office hours is not a luxury that I can be taxed for!!!

They could rather think of making adjustment in office times to de-congest the roads, something like this was tried during the commonwealth games in Delhi. That can be institutionalised, with offices in certain areas or zones having different timings.

the administrations are not interested in solving the issue but are only looking to extort hapless commoners in the name of doing good!

[sa_kiran]

Suppose I have to go for a meeting in South Mumbai area, what are my options? I can not think of using any of so-called public transport. If I manage to use them, I will not be in a position to attend the meeting. Why can't these idiots be realistic before coming up with any ideas?

Credible public transport is the need of the hour. If it is available, I'll use it everywhere (after all it costs much lesser than driving my own car), not just to charging zones.

[vikrantj]

I am little surprised at the lack of information the article gives. There is no mention of measures to help a person reach his place of work if he chooses not to use his car. The metros in various cities are disasters. I mean they take forever to get completed and the misery they cause to general population while under construction. Road works , pipeline digging , general apathy to follow traffic rules, these I feel are bigger things which should looked into to ease congestion. I assume the tax would be like 20Rs/per day or say 600Rs/month which is easily manageable by people driving cars. So all the government get is some revenue in the name of traffic congestion.Apart from this there is a hugh talk of hi-tech machinery which can be deployed for this. How effective are cameras installed on traffic lights for curbing the people to jump signal. I mean certain intensive jobs like toll-booth etc are still manual.

All this is just a pretty article painting a dream sequence and nothing else.

[vinair]

A welcome change indeed!

However, this would take a immediate nose dive if implemented without bring a drastic improvement to the existing public transportation across cities.

Wish, a similar fee is slapped on those driving SUVs, MUVs (private) without a minimum passenger occupancy (also making car pooling mandatory!) during peak hours!

[amitayu]

Credible public transport is the need of the hour. If it is available, I'll use it everywhere (after all it costs much lesser than driving my own car), not just to charging zones.[/quote]

+100 to that!!! First we need credible public transport system, only then can one talk about such congestion charges. I for one bought a car in Delhi because i was frustrated by the public transport system. Starting one's day with an argument with the autowalla's over fare is not the ideal way to start a day!!!
And especially for the ladies, sexual haraasments in public transports is so wanton, it is not suprising if they want to travel in personal transports just to be safe!!! Charging that is criminal!

[aniket.tiwari27]

Its ok for cities with better public transport facilities (Mumbai) but cities like Pune, this solution is not going to work. There are'nt proper bus stops, all routes not covered and autos charge fixed amount instead of running by meter.

And as rightly said by @amitayu - "no one drives during peak hours amidst all the traffic chaos for fun...we do coz we are compelled to. Going to office during office hours is not a luxury that I can be taxed for!!!"

It seems - owning a car and driving it to office is becoming a crime. Rather, companies should start working on giving employees a permanent option of working from home. Teleconference is possible in today's day. With such measures less of office space would be required and will result in savings for the companies while contributiing in reducing traffic.

[ghodlur]

IMHO the congestion charges should be applied to the Municipal corporation authorities rather than vehicle owners. They are the ones responsible for congestions in and around the Mumbai city atleast. Dug up road, improper paver blocks installations, Non functional traffic signals, ineffective traffic cops - all of these add up to the congestion and poor vehicle owners are to be blamed. Thats unfair.

It will be highly unrealistic to say that traffic management system would match the western country cities standards if the congestion tax is applied. This is one more unscruplous way of the govt to fleece the common man. I oppose it vehemently.

[sanstorm]

I have seen system working near perfectly in identified congestions control zones in London. I am more than sure that this would not work in our contry owing to the infrastructure woes, technology, discipline and authroity's seriousness for the root cause than the symptoms.

As many of us, I am also frustrated with the way government authorities are behaving like mafia's to find new ways to loot money. The proposed system would only mean huge value tenders ( cut practise), bribe for recruiting toll/monitor staff, accounting frauds and more taxes from us.

-- offtopic

1.Just to sight the wastage of public money , there were 1000s of CCTV purchased by authorities in Pune reacting to the bomb blast few years back. It would not surpise anyone that barley 5% of them are in working and those also do not have 24x7 central monitoring.

2.The so called DP road and footpaths are dug and relaid in 3 times in last 2+ years in my vicinity. The next round of digging is now on thanks to Maharashtra Natural Gas Ltd. The guys from Kothrud/Pune would know what it means to us on daily basis. The authrities and contactors who are merrily using their BMWs as reward for the unplanned and subquality work not to mention seperately

3.Why do I have to pay 3 times more toll for NH4 patch running in Maharashtra compared to that in Karnataka part, specially when the later has better infra( quality, service road, queue management at toll and lesser traffic .

The nexus of politicians, authorities and industrial houses is getting uncontrollable

[NMS]

I would totally not mind paying the taxes given the fact that the money is well utilized. Then it would not be wrong for us to expect flawless roads, less congestion and traffic cops doing their jobs well.
At the same time if this has to be implemented, the govt./municipality should also work towards improving public transport.
The idea should be to desist people from using their personal modes of transportation and not fleece them.
The current scenario leaves a lot to be desired.
What if I am stuck in the same congested areas after paying taxes, I would rather not pay taxes then !!

[ninjatalli]

There are two angles to this ruling
1. Need for improvement in public transport - which going by past records is not that we can rely upon; especially when you start considering all major cities.
2. Need for more effective office transport - a good deal of us (including myself) prefer to use individual personal vehicles instead of office transport (buses/cabs/carpools/etc). This is something that can pick up more pace with this ruling; which should be a good thing.

Honestly, for once I'm agreeing with the government's view.

[KiloAlpha]

I was having fun thinking about the implementation of congestion charging in Bangalore. During peak hours, all roads in this city are choked. No exceptions. And there are certain arterial roads in the so-called suburbs (area outside of CBD) that are choked 6am-10pm. Half the posts in this thread http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...t-all-bad.html are about congestion 10km outside of the CBD!!

I have also found that at times, it is faster and smoother to go through the city than to use ring roads that skirt the CBD.

[sourav9385]

I don't see this rule, which involves significant technological & financial investments by the government, being implemented in India for the next 100 years.

Come on, they can't even get traffic lights working properly in this country.
Even if they do, not many people follow it.
Public transport is FUBAR, no point even discussing that here.
The website for booking railway tickets has become the joke of the century.
I don't even want to comment on garbage disposal and general well-being, neat & cleanliness of the metro cities.
Even a simple task such as removal of sun-films from the windows of vehicles has been a complete & utter failure.
Every day I see hundreds of cars with light, dark, super dark, reflective, all kinds of sun-films running around the city, unrestricted and unchallenged.

And they talk about implementing congestion charging? Hah, never in a million years!
You can't build skyscrapers if your foundations are not strong & clearly defined.

Let the begin!