Only 55 percent of two-wheelers registered compared to last year, sales declined by 42 percent

Mrunal Jadhav

Pimpri, March 4, 2021: Corona has hit all industries in the automobile sector hard. There has also been a sharp decline in government revenue. Compared to the year 2019-20 April to January, vehicle registration at the Pimpri-Chinchwad RTO office has decreased by 42 percent during the period April 2020-21 to January.

The city of Pimpri-Chinchwad has long been known as an automobile hub. The city is home to two-wheeler and four-wheeler makers. There are also thousands of medium, small and micro enterprises supplying spare parts to these companies. Due to these industries, the region got the name Udyognagari. The city sells millions of vehicles out of the billions sold across the country. But sales of vehicles made in and around the city have declined.

This is the first time such a big drop in sales has been seen. Even during the Great Recession, the RTO has not seen such a huge decline in vehicle registration.

According to the RTO office, the number of two-wheeler registrations at the Pimpri-Chinchwad RTO office has declined by 45 percent during the period April 2020-21 as compared to April-January 2019-20. Registration of light four-wheelers declined by 21 percent.

Also, there has been a 61 percent decline in the registration of other vehicles. The RTO was closed between March 23 and June 18 due to lockdown during the Corona period. Vehicles were not bought and sold during this period. While it is true that this led to a decline in the number of registrations, not as many vehicles were sold and registered in the subsequent period. The auto industry has been struggling for the past two years as the country’s auto sales have been declining. Since then, due to Corona, the industry has suffered a huge loss.