Kolkata's vehicular traffic is very much in the fast lane despite the metropolis having the highest density of vehicles per kilometer among all metros.

Kolkata Police, which lays claim to scripting the success story, says the city has a density of 814.80 vehicles, the highest among per km road length as compared to 766.31 for Mumbai, followed by 616.58 Chennai and 170 Delhi.
But in terms of vehicle population Delhi topped the list of metros with 44 lakh, followed by 16.44 lakh in Chennai, 14 lakh in Mumbai and 11.44 lakh in Kolkata.

On the other hand, Kolkata has the minimum road length among all the metros with 1,404 km, followed by 1,800 km in Chennai, 1,900 km in Mumbai and 25,948 km in Delhi.

"Kolkata Traffic Police has been successful in attaining a travel speed of almost 19 km per hour, which is amazing under the circumstances," a traffic bulletin for 2004 said.

Kolkata Police's achievement is to be seen in the backdrop of the major constraints of a burgeoning population, growing number of vehicles, limited road space, regular processions, demonstrations and road blockades by political groups, Kolkata Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee said.