Kajal Paul has two sedans in his garage. But the businessman, who lives on CIT Road, is feeling helpless, as his big cars are fast becoming a big bother.

With road space shrinking in the city — just six per cent of the total area at last count — and parking space becoming rare, the middle-aged businessman is desperate for a compact car. He is spoilt for choice. The recently launched Spark, by Chevrolet, has caught his fancy, but he knows that the options are ever expanding.

“After Spark, Hyundai is coming up with its code-named car P-A. It is difficult to decide which car to buy,” he smiles, referring to the slew of launches in the segment in the past few months.

With the economy growing and banks willing to finance automobile purchase, this year has seen the makeover of Zen as Estilo, rebirth of Matiz as Spark and the facelift of Wagon R with an alternative fuel model. The list to choose from also has Indica Xeta, Palio Stile, Maruti Swift and Hyundai Getz.

“Low maintenance cost, fuel efficiency and great manoeuvrability are common features in these cars. They are perfect for city driving,” points out Deepak Sidhvani, who also owns two big cars and one small car. Though he loves to show off his big cars, he uses his Santro Xing when he is in the driver’s seat.

According to him, as most of these models are available in a narrow price band of Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5.7 lakh, making a decision on the basis of price is very difficult.

“This is the segment that gives volumes. Every auto major must have a presence in this segment to survive,” says GM zonal sales manager Gagandeep Singh.

“Companies are making the best out of the eight per cent excise rebate on cars having engines of less than 1.2-litre capacity. It’s affordability that primarily drives the segment,” adds Manish Rathore, the Maruti Suzuki regional sales manager.

According to industry data, the small cars constitute 72 per cent of the market (at the aggregate level). Though the car companies do not part with region-specific data, automobile dealers agree that the trend in Calcutta is hardly different.