“Now, I can also dream of a car,” Nagendra, who runs a make-shift tea shop near my office, told me a day after the Tatas had launched Nano, the Rs. one lakh car.
“I will sell off my scooter to buy one.”
Come September, thousands of Nagendras will throng Tata showrooms to buy their Nano, the people’s car.
Reliance Model?
At the launch ceremony, Ratan Tata told the gathering: “Today, everybody focuses on the urban areas. We want to provide the masses in the rural part of India with a good means of transport that doesn’t exist there.”
Is Tata following the reliance footsteps?
The Ambanis had staged a marketing coup three years back with the introduction of Rs. 501 Reliance Mobile.
Till then, cell phone was considered as a status symbol, affordable only for the middle class Indians.
But the advent of Reliance Mobile revolutionized the market. Laymen became proud owners of cell phones. Phone prices plummeted to a new low. Thus, rural India began ‘walk the talk.’
The Nano, too, has created ripples in the market. Bajaj has announced their plans to launch small-prize car – Concept –by the end of 2009. The price will be in the range of 1.6 – 1.8 lakh. Many more companies will follow suit, according to industry experts.
So the Nano is going to trigger a price war in the Indian car market.
Pressure on Our Roads
But can our roads withstand the pressure of more cars?
At present, five Indian metros account for around 1,64,00000 private vehicles.
Delhi tops the list with 48 lakh vehicles, followed by Bangalore on 31 lakh.
Chennai has 30 lakh vehicles, while Kolkata (18 lakh) and Hyderabad (17 lakh) are at the fourth and fifth places.
“I will sell off my scooter to buy one.”
Come September, thousands of Nagendras will throng Tata showrooms to buy their Nano, the people’s car.
Reliance Model?
At the launch ceremony, Ratan Tata told the gathering: “Today, everybody focuses on the urban areas. We want to provide the masses in the rural part of India with a good means of transport that doesn’t exist there.”
Is Tata following the reliance footsteps?
The Ambanis had staged a marketing coup three years back with the introduction of Rs. 501 Reliance Mobile.
Till then, cell phone was considered as a status symbol, affordable only for the middle class Indians.
But the advent of Reliance Mobile revolutionized the market. Laymen became proud owners of cell phones. Phone prices plummeted to a new low. Thus, rural India began ‘walk the talk.’
The Nano, too, has created ripples in the market. Bajaj has announced their plans to launch small-prize car – Concept –by the end of 2009. The price will be in the range of 1.6 – 1.8 lakh. Many more companies will follow suit, according to industry experts.
So the Nano is going to trigger a price war in the Indian car market.
Pressure on Our Roads
But can our roads withstand the pressure of more cars?
At present, five Indian metros account for around 1,64,00000 private vehicles.
Delhi tops the list with 48 lakh vehicles, followed by Bangalore on 31 lakh.
Chennai has 30 lakh vehicles, while Kolkata (18 lakh) and Hyderabad (17 lakh) are at the fourth and fifth places.
The number is growing with people opting for personalized transportation.
Can you imagine the state of our metro roads five years down the line? It will be utter chaos, if the vehicular population is going at the current rate.
The situation will be no different in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Because we do not have the infrastructure to support this kind of growth.
The Singapore Model
It is high time the government curbed proliferation of vehicles. I think the government should emulate the Singapore model of Vehicle Quota System. Under the VQS, the government has the power to decide the number of new vehicles allowed on the road each year.
Strengthening public transport is the other available option. People should be encouraged to use the metro bus and metro train services, at least during the week days. Thus we can avoid traffic jams, reduce pollution and preserve energy for future generations!
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