Of the Nano, Pollution and Traffic

The Tata Nano, was big; it was big in India even before it rolled out onto the country’s roads. First it created an uproar in Singur, with its manufacturing plant, and then it quietly, well not actually quitely but conveniently was given refuge by Narendra Modi and the Tata Nano was proudly made in Gujarat.

The concept of the Tata Nano, is interesting. Is it supposed to be the dream vehicle for  the vast Indian middle class population, or has it come to India as the paramount road choker of our already clogged roads with beautiful potholes distributed all over town?

After the plant was shifted from Singur to Sanand in Gujarat, the world’s most cheapest car finally hit the road in July and Mumbai’s Raghunath Vichare was the 1st ‘proud owner of the Nano which was presented to him buy the chairman of the Tata group, Mr Ratan Tata himself.

Let’s look at the Nano a little closely; it comes in three variants, ranging between 1.23 to 1.72 lakhs,  which is sort of a revolution in the vehicle market, considering the rising car prices nowadays. (It looks like the Nano is going to create a revolution in its industry very similar to what Tata Docomo did to the cellular phone market. Just as everyone thought the cost of using a cellular phone is going to rise, Docomo came along and turned the market up-side down forcing all telecom operators to re-think their cost plans.)

The car was released commercially in March 09′, after which a record of 2 lakh bookings were made within a short period of only 2 months. The Tata motors company also agreed to provide all the accessories to the car, free of any cost to its first, 1 lakh customers, considering them special, as the car also cost 1 lakh, they were known as the ‘One Lakh Club’

So what do you think? Will the Tata Nano: the people’s car mobilise india? Will it empower the so called middle class and give them an opportunity to fulfill their dream of owning a car, or will it be a fatal attraction leading to the depletion of the Indian traffic? I strongly believe in the latter.

I have seen the traffic scene in a quite a few of India’s liveliest cities. I’ve observed Pune and Bangalore a little better, as I’ve stayed in both cities at different points in time. Other than that, I’ve also seen bits and pieces of the Delhi and Mumbai traffic. The traffic in a city like Pune or Bangalore, doesn’t need to be described. I would consider Bangalore far worse than Pune, considering they have narrower roads and more cars than two wheelers on the road. So with all this commotion on and off the road, the big question arises. Sort of like Sach ka Saamna, imagine you’re sitting in that seat, Rajeev Khandelwal asks the you,  ‘Kya aap Tata nano se khush hain ?’ If it was me, I would say yes and then wait for the buzzer to beep.

Yup, My opinion of the Tata Nano is - I think it’s a great car, but I really think it’s not what India needs right now. It may be the perfect people’s car priced at just around a one lakh, but is it actually the answer for mobilising the Indian people? I don’t think so. What India needs is something that is even more easily accessible than the Nano. Something better, more efficient and much cheaper. While thinking what would be more cheaper than the world’s most cheapest car, only one thing came into my mind: Public Transport.

I believe that public transport is the answer to solving the traffic complications in various cities. Look at the Delhi Metro for example, agreed that they are running into humongous losses for the past two years, but the times I’ve visited Delhi, the metro has been packed and sometimes overcrowded. Now that’s good news. If I were to choose between travelling  Metro or Nano, I would definitely choose the metro, simply because I don’t have to drive in traffic and it cost must cheaper ! (Considering I’m not a snob and think that travelling in the Metro would demean my image in society)

I think public transport is a great idea and I also think it’ll give the Nano a run for its money if utilised and made properly in one of the world’s most populated countries, like ours.

The public transport in our country is under average; there aren’t enough buses, the trains run late, and sometimes the auto and cab drivers refuse to take us along giving us the excuse that they just don’t want to go to that side of town. So obviously, we have to adopt or look up to other countries public transport systems and at least try to copy or imitate them. Places like Moscow, Paris, New York, London and Tokyo have the best public transport systems. So when we buy by international products like electronic gadgets, cars and food stuff because of globalisation, why can’t we globalise the public transport?

Now all this time I just kept emphasising on what effect the peoples car will have on the roads, what about the pollution? Has anyone thought about that? The number of cars will not increase linearly but exponentially and in direct proportion, all the bad stuff coming out of the exhaust pipes will too.

So traffic, and pollution, the two main things we want to curb right now, are handed out at a price tag of just over 1 lakh to the people of India. Well eventually it’s us who have to decide whether to buy the car or not, so if given a choice, I wouldn’t, Would you?

Adwait Patil, currently an injured midfielder (soccer) is also a First Year student of Law at Pune Law College…

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Related posts:

1. Tata Nano revealed
2. Competiting with Tata Nano
3. Tata Nano to launch on 3rd March?
4. Tata Nano to launch by feb end?
5. Can India afford Tata’s 1 Lakh car?

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