<a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4431437.cms">http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4431437.cms</a> Nano likely to take congestion to tier II and III towns 21 Apr 2009, 2132 hrs IST, Niranjana Ramesh, ET Bureau CHENNAI: When the 'mini car' was launched earlier this year, credit rating agency Crisil estimated Nano could expand the Indian car market by <table style="margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px;" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td id="bellyad"> </td></tr></tbody></table> 65% and increase car sales by 20% over previous year. “When the difference in the cost of ownership is between Rs.3 lakh and Rs.2 lakh, the affordability does not increase as much compared to the difference is between Rs.2 lakh and Rs. 1 lakh,” Mr.Krishnan said. "The pyramid keeps widening as we proceed towards the bottom, including more and more prospective customers." “Going by these estimates, Nano is likely to flood tier II and III towns, when it reaches volumes of 2-3 lakhs, which will be in three years,” he said. In other words, Nano will replicate the 215% growth in annual volumes of cars which was seen between 1998 and 2008. Dr. N S Srinivasan, former head of the transport and transportation division of the Central Road Research Institute, estimates the growth of car traffic in central business districts (CBDs) of cities alone was six per cent during that period. “Whereas, the capacity of roads in CBDs to handle such volume had grown quite negligibly,” he said. “This is because, it is not possible to widen city roads owing to building constructions, and there is a limitation to construction of flyovers.” This has led to congestion doubling in major cities, and trebling in some metros. Volume capacity ratio, by which congestion is measured, has gone up from 0.5 to 2 in Chennai, to 3 in certain CBDs in Bangalore. Urban transport planners share this apprehension. Chennai transport commissioner S Machendranathan said, “Within cities, the most that we can do is to create some one way streets, put in more traffic signals to avoid accidents.” The situation in tier II and tier III towns, where roads are often only half the width as in metros, is only worse. Ministry of Urban Development’s Urban Transport Division director Sanjeev K Lohia said, “Widening of roads in tier II and III towns is permissible under the JNNURM. But, according to the national urban road transport policy, central allocation has to prioritise urban transport facilities over road construction, or facilitation of private transport.”