KIMBERLY COLAÇO
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PANJIM: After Goa witnessed steep growth in the number of vehicles purchased between 2010 – 2012, this financial year there has been a fall of nearly 4 per cent in overall sales. Officials say the possible spoke in the wheels is the closure of mining activity. Significantly, sales of trucks and premium cars have dropped after sales in 2011- 2012 hit a peak 19.83 per cent increase. The sale of goods vehicles itself has gone down by 52 percent. Also there is a major decline in purchase of government vehicles. In 2012- 2013 just 10 vehicles have been purchased, while a whooping 194 vehicles were purchased in the last financial year, when the new government took office.
In 2009-2010 there was an increase of 8.48 per cent in vehicle purchases, which went up to 17.53 per cent in 2010- 2011.
But this financial year there has been a dip of 3.67 per cent in the sales of both non-transport and transport vehicles, according to the Transport Department.
“The major reason for the decrease in the sales of vehicles is the closure of mining. It has affected not only transport vehicles like trucks but also hit the other sectors of non-transport vehicles especially premium cars,” says Arun Desai, director of transport.
There are already 22,000 trucks in the state. But for the past so many years vehicles have been bought at an astonishing rate though the number of mines has not gone up and at the time of permissions the number of trucks have to be put down in the mining plan.
Out of the 9.38 lakh vehicles in the state, there are 8.32 lakh in the non transport sector and 1.01 lakh in the transport segment.
But surprisingly, the total number of taxis sold in 2009-2010 was 904 which fell to mere 171 in 2010- 2011. But increased to 495 in 2011- 2012 and to 1089 taxis in 2012- 2013.
The case is not the same with buses, mini- buses and Kadamba Transport Corporation buses. In 2008-2009 the number of buses purchased was 706 which was reduced to 688 in 2009- 2010, the number had again fallen to 575 in 2010- 2011 but had seen a slight growth in by 606 in 2011- 2012.
This year the number of buses has decreased to 443 that is a 27 per cent fall. Auto rickshaws have considerably gone on a high since 2010 – 2011 with increase of 63 vehicles which further increased to 81 and 102 new vehicles in 2012- 2013.
By and large in the transport sector which includes taxis, all local and government buses, auto rickshaws and motorcycles on hire saw a decline compared to 2011- 2012 and 2012 – 2013. The total transport vehicles purchased in 2011- 2012 were 9,998 and 2012- 2013 had 5,286 vehicles. The figures have come down by 47 per cent. The total number of cars in 2009 -2010 were 6104 which were increased to 6617 in 2010- 2011.
Non- transport sector purchases are not doing too well, with an overall increase of just 2.96 per cent. The two wheeler section has increased by 5.84 per cent. “It will take time for the two wheeler purchases to come down, as presently the most affected segment are the premium cars, since they are purchased for the luxury quotient,” he said.
