Fuel on rise again, but 1,872 vehicles registered in 2 days

MUMBAI: Amid the rise in fuel prices and increasing traffic snarls on the city’s roads, 1,872 new vehicles were registered across Wednesday and Thursday, ahead of Dussehra, considered by Hindus as one of the most auspicious times to make new purchases.

According to a Regional Transport Office (RTO) source, the highest number of vehicles — 943 — were registered in the western suburbs, where traffic has slowed down considerably because of Metro work, parking woes and other reasons.

Two RTO offices — Andheri and Borivli — are located in Western suburbs.

Of the 1,872 vehicles registered, 1,080 were two wheelers and 792 four-wheelers, RTO data revealed.

According to the figures, the highest number of vehicles — 611 — were registered at Andheri, followed by 585 at Tardeo, 474 at Wadala and 332 at Borivli.

The number of vehicles registered could have been even more, according to RTO officials, with fewer registrations because of the Bombay high court’s stay on conducting fitness tests.

An RTO official said that according to a recent directive from their department, even new commercial vehicles, one with the yellow number plates, need to go through fitness tests before registration.

Between July and September this year, the city’s four RTOS saw a 22% jump in the number of vehicles registered.

And, over six months between April and September, 26% more Mumbaiites bought vehicles compared to the same period in 2017, when fuel prices were much lower — 1.47 lakh new vehicles hit the roads in the past six months of 2018, against 1.17 lakh last year.

Six-month data from the transport department, collected from the city’s four RTOS, showed the most number of vehicles, at 40,797, were registered at the Wadala RTO , which caters to areas in the south-central and eastern parts of the city.