Increasing the price of petrol is the best way to solve growing traffic and pollution problems. To what extent do you agree or disagree ? What other measures do you think might be effective.

These days, the soaring figures at the Air Quality Index have become a cause of stress for all the metropolitan cities. I completely disagree with the suggestion that by uplifting the charges of fuel we can control the road congestion as well as the air pollution issues. In

this

essay, we will understand why we cannot resolve

this

problem by elevating the fuel charges and come up with certain feasible solutions.

Firstly

, nowadays owning a four-wheeler or driving it has gone beyond the aspect of affordability and is inclining more towards comfort.

In other words

, the increased price of

petrol

will rarely affect the usage of vehicles.

For example

, since the past few years, the charges of

petrol

and diesel are constantly increasing. I remember, 5 years back the cost of 1 litre of

petrol

was around Rs. 55 and today its Rs. 88, which is a significant rise but it could not pause the public in using their cars. Introducing more driveways and flyovers can be a reasonable solution to resolve the problem of bottle-necked roads. With more number of routes

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,

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the traffic will divert into different directions and thereby minimising the road-congestion.

For instance

, it used to take no less than 3 hours to travel from Bandra to Churchgate but with the construction of Bandra-South Bombay flyover, one can cover the same distance in just 30 minutes.

Also

, we can promote the usage of eco-friendly vehicles which do not emit harmful gases to reduce air pollution.

Moreover

, by introducing subsidy on taxes as well as other kinds of discounts we can establish a good market for environmentally safe cars. To conclude, people these days are choosing comfort over money and they will not let go of the leisure of travelling comfortably in their own car for a higher fuel price.

Therefore

, increasing the

petrol

price to minimise the traffic issue will not be an appropriate idea.

Moreover

, traffic and air pollution can be controlled by building more flyovers and by supporting the usage of eco-friendly cars.