Kamal Ghorui
The PM has called for spending wisely—starting at the pump. The bigger leak is at the traffic signal.
Outside Parliament in Delhi, convoy vehicles often stand for hours waiting for MPs and VIPs — engines running, ACs blasting continuously. Hundreds of cars. All burning fuel while stationary, generating more heat in already unbearable conditions, and polluting the air so badly that it is often difficult to even breathe there.
And this is not limited to politicians. Government vehicles, official convoys and publicly funded privileges are often used with astonishing disregard for fuel efficiency or environmental impact.
So when one sees Chief Ministers after Chief Ministers — and even the PM — publicly embracing the PM’s appeal to use fuel and resources wisely, it is welcome. Every litre saved matters. It saves forex, reduces pressure on imports, helps the environment, and in uncertain global times, prudence is wisdom, not pessimism.
It is also important to be clear about what this appeal is, and what it is not. Austerity, in its usual sense, means budget cuts, reduced government spending, lower subsidies and fiscal tightening. This government is doing none of that. Capital expenditure continues. Welfare spending continues. Subsidies continue. The PM’s appeal is not about spending less. It is about spending more wisely — reducing fuel consumption, cutting avoidable dependence on imported goods, and lowering the drain on foreign exchange.
But if we are serious about national efficiency, symbolism alone will not do.
Prudence cannot only be asked of citizens. It must begin from the top.
And then comes the larger problem.
If we are serious about saving fuel and improving national efficiency, then let’s confront the elephant on the road.
India today has:
- 21st century cars
- Mostly 20th century roads
- And, tragically, 16th century driving habits
Sometimes even earlier.
Just now at the Chhattarpur crossing in Delhi, the signal turned red. Naturally, everyone accelerated.
Vehicles kept pouring into the intersection long after the light had changed, blocking the traffic that had got the green signal. Within seconds, the entire crossing became a giant knot of metal, fumes, honking and human despair. A perfect “hotchpotch”.
Traffic policemen were present too. All sitting under a tree. All on their phones. Possibly watching road safety reels.
And then come the legendary Indian U-turns.
One driver slowly takes a U-turn and blocks half the fast lane, then freezes there like a thoughtful philosopher contemplating civilisation. The oncoming vehicles panic and swerve into the next lane, which blocks that lane too. Within moments, six lanes of traffic are trying to occupy the same physical space.
Newton gave us laws of motion. India gave the world motion without laws.
Everything about our road behaviour is economically suicidal:
- Wrong-side driving
- Over-speeding
- Random braking
- Commercial vehicles parked in live lanes
- Rickshaws occupying 60% of major roads at 11 kmph
- Three lanes suddenly becoming two
- Signage that tells you where to turn after you’ve already crossed the turn
- Driving licences acquired through “contacts”, “consideration”, or divine intervention
- Road engineering that often appears inspired by abstract art
And spare a thought for the citizen who actually follows the rules. The one who stops at the red, signals before turning, stays in his lane. He is honked at. Overtaken on the left. Cut off by a U-turning philosopher. And he arrives last. In India, road discipline is not just unrewarded — it is actively punished.
Now comes the serious part.
This is not merely irritating. It is ruinously expensive.
Official and institutional studies already suggest the losses are enormous:
- A widely cited estimate used by NITI Aayog and others puts congestion losses in just four cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata — at roughly Rs 1.47 lakh crore annually.
- A Bengaluru planning estimate says the city alone may be wasting nearly 50 crore litres of fuel every year because of congestion.
- Another estimate says Bengaluru loses nearly 60 crore man-hours annually sitting in traffic.
- A Delhi study estimated thousands of litres of fuel being burnt every single day merely while idling at traffic intersections.
- India recorded over 1.7 lakh road deaths in 2023 alone.
- A government-linked assessment has estimated that road crashes and related losses may amount to over 3% of India’s GDP.
Think about that.
We keep debating oil prices by the rupee. But we barely discuss the national-scale bleeding caused daily by chaotic driving, weak enforcement and bad traffic design.
And to be fair, one must also be careful with conclusions.
There is no single authoritative national study yet that cleanly calculates:
“How much of India’s total economic loss comes specifically from terrible driving habits, poor lane discipline, blocked intersections, bad signage and weak enforcement?”
That precise number does not exist publicly. So one should not casually invent a giant number and present it as fact.
But the available evidence overwhelmingly points in one direction:
The wastage is massive. Systemic. And economically consequential.
We are trying to become a developed nation while driving like a nation auditioning for a demolition derby.
And no — this is not just a “traffic problem”.
It is:
- An economic problem
- A governance problem
- A public health problem
- An energy-security problem
- A national competitiveness problem
Because efficient nations move efficiently.
Right now, our traffic resembles Brownian motion: random particles colliding aggressively with one another without purpose, discipline, or direction.
No appeal to spend our resources wisely can fully succeed if lakhs of vehicles continue wasting fuel daily in avoidable chaos created by indiscipline, poor enforcement, and terrible planning.
No austerity campaign can fully succeed if lakhs of vehicles continue wasting fuel daily in avoidable chaos created by indiscipline, poor enforcement, and terrible planning.
Saving fuel is not only about using less. It is also about wasting less.
And on Indian roads, waste has become a way of life.
END OF ARTICLE
