BUT THE worrying factor is that even as China tries to dish out as many car driving licenses as possible, it is also recording thousands of car crashes and accidents due to rash driving by drivers who have been given a license in a hurry. There is concern in China and even in the international community, as China, which back in 2009 became the world's largest auto market in the world, that there should be better testing before granting a driving licence. The swelling in demand for the latest car models has created a huge market for driving schools - so much so that driving has now become a necessary life skill.

In 2011 alone, China gave out licenses to 22.69 people - taking the total number of licenses granted to 236 million, reported Reuters. But if there is a co-correlation between a driving license and non-occurrence of an accident - then it is certainly not being reflected in China. In 2010, there were 3.9 million road accidents on Chinese roads - killing 65,225 people and injuring 254,075. With driving licenses being granted a little casually, the lack of experience on congested and busy roads is getting reflected in road accidents.

There are driving schools that admit 10,000 students in a year, and have classes for 13 hours in a day - all days of the week - such is the demand for car licenses in China. The procedure to get a license is not as stringent as in say the Emirates. Drivers attend a driving school before appearing for three tests including a written one. Those who do get their license need to cope with notoriously short-tempered drivers, especially those in Beijing, which is why commentators feel they long for the day when people used the bicycle as their major mode of transport.