The vehicle population of the city has risen from 13.53 lakh in 2006 to 14.76 lakh in 2007 and now stands at over 16 lakh. With used cars dealers ensuring that vehicle owners have a ready avenue to get rid of their old vehicles and go in for new models, the estimation by city-based Central institute of Road Transport (CIRT) of the future vehicle population in Pune makes interesting reading. "The extrapolated motor vehicle population for March 2009 is 17.45 lakh and over 19 lakh for March 2010,' said Subhashini Gaika, member of faculty at CIRT. Praveensinh Pardeshi when he came in as Pune Municipal Commissioner was vocal about imposing a congestion tax to curb the number of vehicles in certain parts of the city. Much as he has toned down now, he is still in agreement with the need to levy a congestion tax on vehicles. "I would definitely support levying of a congestion tax in Pune. But the municipal corporation cannot do anything per se; it is the state government that has to take a decision on it. This move needs to be discussed in the traffic mobility committee that has exclusively been appointed to address and solve Pune's traffic issues,' he said. N Ramaswamy, head of Intelligent Transport System, CIRT, who wrote " Should a Congestion Cess be Charged " that came out two months ago, added: "Congestion cess can result in reduction in the volume of the traffic through the road section as long as an alternative link exists. Then, the congestion tax ought to be high enough to act as a deterrent. It should at least be 40 per cent of the road tax to be effective.' Prakash Jadhav, Assistant RTO, currently member of faculty at CIRT, said that for two-wheelers and four-wheelers, the applicable road tax is seven per cent of the value of the vehicle. "In comparison, Singapore charges 200 per cent of the value of the vehicle as road tax. Their parking charges are also hefty. But they backed this up with an excellent public transport system,' he said. Maj Gen (retd) S C N Jatar of Nagrik Chetna Manch however said that the city would not be able to implement the congestion tax system, as the equipment necessary for its operation is quite expensive and difficult to handle. "It cost the British over 40 million pounds to set up the congestion tax system in London. But Pune is far from ready to implement a similar kind of a system yet,' Jatar said. Instead, Jatar said the traffic police should deploy all their resources and crack down on illegal parking. "In many cases, the traffic police do not act against the erring elements,' he said. The CIRT study puts the number of registered vehicles in Pune by 2010 at over 19 lakh. This is by far a very conservative estimation as t he figures have been extrapolated using average growth figures. With the advent of the small, low-cost cars like Nano in the market and the push of used cars into the city roads, Pune may be looking at an even more crowded scenario.