Significant inflow of vehicles in recent past

Sarath Malalasekera

COLOMBO: The number of vehicles in Sri Lanka has shown a rapid increase during the recent past. The total number of vehicles has almost doubled during the last decade.

From the year 2000 to 2006 the total number of vehicles have increased from 170,382 to 2,827,902, said Senior Superintendent of Police V.T. Sunderalingam addressing a Traffic Management Course held in Singapore recently.

The Traffic Management seminar for Senior officials from Sri Lanka and Maldives was conducted by the Traffic Police Department of the Singapore Police Force recently.

The programme was organised and sponsored by the Singapore cooperation programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore.

The objective of the seminar was to provide a comprehensive understanding of the traffic management system in Singapore in order to facilitate a comparative analysis and understanding of the pros and cons of the traffic management system of the participating countries.

Colombo North Traffic ASP T. Ganeshanathan, Colombo South ASP Palitha Siriwardena, Negombo ASP S.C. Galappaththi and Jagodaarachchi of Traffic Police Headquarters also represented Sri Lanka at this management course.

Senior SP Sundaralingam said that Sri Lanka is experiencing a number of difficulties with regard to the traffic situation in the country and the government as well as many other organisations such as local government authorities, Road Development Authorities, Universities, Non Governmental Organisations and above all the traffic division of the police department are paying serious concern in order to find solutions to the problem.

While every vehicle category has increased there is a marked increase in the number of two wheeler and three wheeler vehicles. The deficiencies in public transportation systems and the less affordability among the majority of the population to maintain motor cars or dual purpose vehicles could be the factor contributing to this situation, the Senior SP added.

Senior SP Sundaralingam emphasised that this situation can be further clarified by looking at the statistics with regard to new vehicle registrations between the period 2000 to 2006.

New vehicle registration has swelled from approximately 92,000 to 300,000. There is a notable increase in the registration of motorcycles which has increased from 7,952 to 150,626. In fact there is a decrease in the registration of dual purpose vehicles and a marginal increase in buses. Motor car registration has also increased from 13,893 to 27,578 which is a significant increase.

Although there is a considerable decrease in traffic accidents since 2004, mainly due to strict traffic regulations, still the accident rate is significantly high.

In 2004 the total number of accidents was 53,458 and in 2006 it was 43,171. In fatal accidents, pedestrians have faced the highest number of deaths, while the second highest is motorcyclists. Motorcyclists seem to be responsible for a majority of accidents while buses are the second most accident prone vehicle, the Senior SP said.