(wl-3410)-Will congestion pricing help curb the traffic jams in our cities?

With traffic volume increasing in India’s megacities, the discourse over congestion has evolved from looking at it as a byproduct of urbanisation to exploring various measures to manage or control the flow during peak hours. Urban economics provides a host of solutions for addressing these problems by treating traffic congestion as a negative externality. There is a significant social cost that is generated, in terms of loss of time and vehicular pollution, affecting commuters. The theory proposes the imposition of a congestion charge or ‘congestion tax’, which raises the cost of commuting by cars and initiates a behavioural shift by reducing the use of private vehicles in the central business district and encouraging the use of public transport in areas of heavy-density and high economic activity. The idea has been tested in many cities across the world, such as Singapore, London, Stockholm, and Hong Kong. It has also been toyed with in India but has not been implemented in any city so far. We argue that the time has come for it to be tested on a pilot basis in major Indian megacities, and for it to succeed, it is imperative to scale up public transport infrastructure as well as use alternative tools.