INTRODUCTION

The population boom has put a premium on all facilities available in cities. Transport is no exception. The urban shift has only compounded the problem.

With cities becoming centres of all major activity, be it in the industry or service sectors, there is an unprecedented demand on the transport sector. Both public and private transport has grown tremendously in the last few decades. The outcome is the higher transport densities moving to and from centralised pockets for employment and education. As public transport falls woefully short of the demand, private transport is thought to be the answer. This is reflected in the increase in private vehicles on the road - motorcycles, scooters and jeeps have registered a steep increase in their numbers among all categories of vehicles (3717 in 1956 to 15,42,892 in 1993 for the whole of our state).

In the absence of better rail and mass transit facilities, these individual transport media slow down per-person kilometres travelled. They also add large quantities of unburnt hydrocarbons, lead particulate and smaller quantities of carbon monoxide to the city-air. This happens due to the leaded petrol as also adulterated fuel-use mostly through two-stroke engines in three-wheelers. This polluted air gets into our lungs and is supposed to be a major cause of many respiratory problems.

Our state has a large number of vehicles, both transport and non-transport vehicles. In the coastal Andhra region, Krishna district tops the list in the total number of transport vehicles and motor cars on road. About 28.38% of the total vehicles in Andhra Region are found in Krishna district. One third of the total cars also run in Krishna district. Vizianagaram accounts for the least number of vehicles at 2919 transport vehicles and in motor cars, Srikakulam has the least number with just 417 motor cars on roll and road as on March 31, 1997.

In the Rayalaseema region, Chittoor has the largest number of transport vehicles and Kurnool the largest number of motor cars. Cuddapah has the least in both the categories.

In Telangana, Hyderabad tops the list of vehicles of both categories at 52% for transport vehicles and 79% of motor cars, followed by Ranga Reddy District at 7.79% and 8.73%.

The least number of transport cars are found in Adilabad district (1.77%) which also has the leastnumber of motor cars (0.31%) followed by Mahaboobnagar at 2.82% Nalgonda District also has the least number of motor cars at 0.55% only.