The so called superlative international city with the world’s tallest building and highest number of expats has topped yet another chart. Dubai now has 1.4 million passenger vehicles for a population of 2.4 million people which translates to 540 vehicles per 1000 people according to a report by Roads and Transport Authority.
During the past decade, the number of vehicles has more than doubled in Dubai despite heavy investments in public transport system in the emirate. The sharp increase is due to two major reasons, one of them is cheap fuel and the other is the love of cars people have in abundance apart from the money.
The number is so big that it even surpassed New York and London, both of which have 305 and 213 vehicles per 1000 people respectively. No wonder we hear the news of frequent massive traffic jams and expats Pakistanis complain about them.
When we bring that comparison to our beloved homeland, we cannot even match this number even if we combine all of our cities, heck we can’t even come close to that number. The whole of Pakistan has 14 vehicles per 1000 people. Yes, you read that right. 14 vehicles per 1000 people.
On the bright side, this makes Pakistan a very lucrative market for the foreign auto companies. This actually means that Pakistan has a huge potential to grow in the auto sector. I remember reading a report by JICA which stated that many countries experience a rapid increase in the motorisation index when their GDP per-capita exceeds $3000. The current GDP per-capita of Pakistan is around $1350.
I think Pakistan has a long way to go to cross the $3000 mark and there is still a lot of room for growth in the auto industry. I hope we live long enough to see this country and the auto industry prosper.
not a long way i guess. if there are right policies adopted we may see the rapid increase in motorization in few years maybe even earlier.
Good stats Fahad. In my opinion, Pakistan can learn from these megacities a great deal. We are still sort of greenfield in transportation. Mass transport is the basic solution of every mega city and I believe the govt should focus on that. Having more cars is good but only if you have 16 lane highways and motorways like the Emirates.
Not an appropriate comparison.
Most of Pakistan’s vehicles are concentrated in cities whereas most of the pop. is in the countryside.
Anyways. Good info though. Traffic mess in our country is a mix of poor road design, bad road sense, wrong parking, encroachments, dearth of alternate transportation of appropriate quality, and so the list goes on and on.
I was reading a yahoo news about same topic. According to it not all vehicles are on the road. there is a vast majority of vehicles which are getting dust at parking lots or airport parking lots or are on streets forever . Mostly luxury cars for which owners couldn’t make payments. Population density is also a factor. Same number of vehicles can have diffrent effect in diffrent surface areas.
good info, but in my opinion Dubai has more vehicles then the rest because of costly housing in the emirate. a large number of Dubai employees mostly Asian prefer to home at northern emirates such as Sharjah and Ajman and drive every day to Dubai. hence no great public transport from these emirates commuters have to arrange their own way of transportation. mostly traffic jams are on these routes in the morning and evening. and the other reason cheep vehicles in UAE, no taxes like in pakistan, every normal salaried person can afford a car. Dubai has great infrastructure, which we cannot even think in Pakistan. to give boom to the auto mobile sector government has to do alot.
Dubai has more per capita income than Pakistan, they are financially secured, no extra taxes/duties on cars and thus they can afford them. Than why are you comparing us with them. Car is a luxury here but not in dubai.
So, Whats the point?
very true…. great thinking..
That is true indeed. My point with that comparison was to highlight that given right circumstances, our auto industry will prosper as there is a lot of gap in the market.
Yup. It is expected that after the new auto policy is introduced, the industry will see a positive shift. Let’s hope for the best.
The point here I am trying to make that the auto industry has potential and once right policies are in place, things will get better.
Yup. Also, people have more than one car in Dubai so the actual number of cars on road will vary quite a lot.
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Adnan khan you are just stupid,, this helps thinking in diffrent points sectors and provide you with thinking on diffrent paradigms…and yes i am refring this pararaph in my universities thesis on Pakistan auto industry.. P.S can you tell me the source from where you get to know that there is 14 vehicles per 1000 person in Pakistan
A senior spokesperson of Indus Motor Company mentioned that during some event. I do not remember that but it is authentic figure. It was also mentioned in Aurora Magazine sometime back on the subject of automotive industry.