The total number of registered vehicles, across various categories, in the Capital breached the one crore mark even as the usage of public transport, mostly buses operated by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), saw a reduced ridership during the 2016-17 financial year continuing the trend from the previous one, that is 2015-16.
Data released by the Delhi government in the Delhi Statistical Handbook 2017 posit that the vehicular population increased by nearly 8 lakh, being registered at 1,04,82,757 in 2016-17 compared to 97,04,741 – an increase of 7,78,016 – as of March 31.
Around 115.16 crore passengers utilised the services of DTC buses in 2016-17 as opposed to 129.44 crore in 2015-16, registering a decline of 14.28 crore. This despite the Delhi government's successive attempts at making public transport in general and DTC buses in particular more viable options for the Capital’s citizens.
Daily ridership
In fact, the public transporter’s daily ridership declined to 31.55 lakh in 2016-17 from 35.37 lakh in 2015-16. The Delhi Statistical Handbook 2016 shows that there were 4027 functional DTC buses in 2016-17, down from 4,352 in 2015-16.
According to the statistics released, 2,506 of these are non-AC low floor, 1,275 AC and 246 are standard floor. As many as 3,547 buses were operated by the public transporter during 2016-17 on a daily basis. However, the DTC also recorded 763 breakdowns per 10,000 buses during the same period.
Barring the state of DTC, the latest data depicts an upward trend across categories with a total of over 1.04 crore registered vehicles in 2016-17 as against 97.05 lakh in 2015-16. The number of autorickshaws was registered at 1,74,000 compared to 1,98,137 in 2015-16.
The number of taxis jumped from 91,073 in 2015-16 to 1,48,434 in 2016-17. The number of total buses, which includes ambulances and mini buses, declined to 38,265 compared to the last fiscal’s number which was recorded at 43,723.
According to the figures, over 1.66 lakh more four wheelers were registered during 2016-17 taking their total tally from 29,86,579 in 2015-16 to 31,52,710 in 2016-17. Meanwhile, over 6.03 lakh more two wheelers were registered in the Capital during the financial year bringing their final tally from 61,04,070 in 2015-16 to 67,07,891 in 2016-17.
