The festive season usually witnesses a surge in car registrations. This year, however, the story is different. Rising fuel prices combined with high interest rates for vehicle loans has seen a drop in car registrations this festive season that began a couple of months ago.

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For the period between April to August 2011, 22, 979 cars were registered, according to figures from the three regional transport offices (RTOs) in the city. Last year's figure for the corresponding period was 24, 933. In comparison, more two-wheelers were registered — the figure shot up from 32, 377 in 2010 to 34, 810 this year.

The figures for September and October were unavailable, but officials said the negative trend continued. "Expectations about car registrations have gone down drastically," said a transport official. "In fact, the regular practice of providing special Dussehra day registration facility at the RTOs was cancelled this year. All the RTOs were closed."

"Dealers did not request us to keep our offices open as they did not expect sales on Dussehra unlike the past two years. We might be looking at an overall decline of 10-20% in car registrations," he said.

State transport commissioner VN More admitted that car registrations in Mumbai were on a decline. "For the first three months of the financial year, car bookings happened as per our expectations. The decline began from August and has continued. The economy is a major factor. Rising fuel prices and interest rates on loans have contributed to this," said More.