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-   -   Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/68789-traffic-life-roads-chennai-213.html)

When I tried to park my car in Metro parking structure couple of months back on a weekend, a security person denied entry giving no reason. I'm sure there was some reason but for whatever reason he seemed bit pissed off to give me an answer. I complained to CMRL twitter account and nothing came out of it.

As I was anyway trying to park for taking the Metro into the city, I went to Alandur station, parked and took the train from there.

I am done with my one day trip. Hence adding some details here. Parked my car in Chennai airport - open parking since there is no covered parking available there. Was charged 600/-. The total time parked was 29 Hrs.

Though airport metro station parking had a covered parking, its open between 5.30 AM till 23.59. Hence it was closed when I reached at 4.45 AM. I did not find the parking timings anywhere on the internet.

The parking times of the stations are available in the Chennai Metro mobile app. And they are going to bring a system where the parking charges can be paid by only the metro smart cards so that the parking is used only by genuine metro users.

Most cities have their own automotive culture and Chennai has its own as well. But the city seems to have turned a corner; commercial taxis have never been seen in a petrol avatar here (ignoring the one or two Nano taxis that I've seen till before now). Other cities in India have had WagonR, Alto and Santro as taxis.

But now? I'm seeing Alto Tour and Celerio Tour taxis. The number of sightings in the Tambaram area are noticeably up. Is Maruti pushing these cars at deep discounts to cab operators? Why would the cabbies even touch petrol cars with a barge pole here in Chennai?

Why would any high-mileage commercial vehicle user go for petrol?

Probably because it's now cheaper to own and operate a petrol car at least for the first 2 lakh km.

That's precisely what beats me!

I assume you're referring to the narrowing of the gap between Petrol and Diesel's pricing. Maybe that's what it is and perhaps some cab operators have finally found it in them to bite the bullet and give petrol cars a shot to see if it works out or not. The hypothesis bears testing out - they should be cheaper to maintain in the long run.

Or, these cabs are being run on CNG or LPG. I couldn't find any tell-tale signs of either on the outside though.

Well there must be another hidden thing - G.A.S. Either the cars are running on gas or have plans to convert into gas in long run.

How can it possibly be cheaper to run a petrol car constantly for many hours a day on petrol rather than diesel?

For continuous short haul runs in stop and go city traffic? That’s a slow death for a Diesel engine, or rather a fast one given the number of daily miles a local cab can notch up.

A brand new Alto LX OTR would be around 4.2 lakh (approx) whereas the cheapest diesel (Tiago) available in the market would cost around 6.5 lakh (approx).

Below are the assumptions

• Fuel price - Petrol @ 75/l and diesel @ 69/l
• Fuel Efficiency - Petrol @ 15 kmpl and diesel @ 18 kmpl
• Annual Maintenance cost - Petrol @ Rs. 5000 and diesel @ Rs. 8000
• Monthly Usage - 5000 km (60,000 annually)
• Loan for 3,00,000 @ 9.5% ROI for 4 years

If you take these into account, you will realize that the benefit of diesel could be reaped after 4 years or 2,00,000 km (approx).

Ok... I'm not good at sums, so I hadn't tried.

I still wonder, though... Are London black cabs still diesel? Aren't buses diesel? The ultimate in stop-start driving.

It's a long time ago now, and sure, an Indicab is no Mercedes, but I recall talking to a German cab driver. Two brothers keep the car in use 24 hours, and the car lifetime is loooooong.

Just my preconceptions here maybe!

Those are running on gas, CNG or LPG. Recently i got one such alto on uber, driver was directly coming from the showroom it seems, car had 55kms on odo and no number plates .

Black cabs used to be diesel. Now, London EV Company which makes these cabs has stopped manufacturing diesel cabs and instead has started rolling out Electric vehicles.

While in London, most of the taxis (expect black cab) that I have been in were petrol-powered. Also, I believe that it's cheaper to operate a petrol vehicle. Petrol is cheaper than diesel by around 10-15 pence.

Buses and Trucks are diesel-powered because these vehicles require more torque, which diesel engine offers aplenty at comparatively a lower RPM.

OT: The highest reading on any vehicle that I have been in is this Lexus (petrol-powered) taxi in Taiwan.

If in case the odo is not visible: the reading is 802670.

I was at camp road junction this evening and I saw a traffic cop stop a mechanic (based on his costume) riding without a helmet.

Apparently a customer gave the bike for service and this mechanic took it for a test drive after fixing it up. I could see the cop impound the bike.

Now my question is who is going to pay the fine. The mechanic doesn’t look like someone who could cough up thousands of rupees as fine.

P.S. The mechanic did not look like the A.S.S type but rather an FNG type.

@Mods: Couldn't edit my previous post. Please merge.