Less plaints against drivers with more autos plying on roads

Pune: A quantum jump in the number of auto rickshaws in the city has added to the city’s traffic burden. The new permit policy has introduced 20,000 new auto-rickshaws on the road and the number is now above 60,000 in the city.

With an increased number of auto-rickshaws on city roads, the Regional Transport Office (RTO) claim that the number of complaints about the refusal to ply and overcharging has gone down. On June 17, 2017, the State Home Ministry issued a circular, which discontinued the restrictions put on the issuance of fresh permits by the then government in November 1997. 

For the past 20 years, the number of auto permits in Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nagpur, Solapur, Nashik and Aurangabad had remained frozen. Earlier, there were 46,006 auto-rickshaws on city roads. After adding 20,000 new autos, the number increased to 66,000.

After the decision, the RTO had launched a portal for accepting applications for fresh auto-rickshaw permits in July 2017. Till the end of July 31, 2017, the portal received around 20,000 applications. 

“With more availability of auto-rickshaws on roads, the competition to get passengers has certainly become stiffer. In such a situation, a driver wouldn’t want to turn away passengers and this will automatically improve the behaviour of the drivers towards passengers. In fact, we have noticed a marginal dip in the number of grievances pertaining to refusal to ply and overcharging that we receive from citizens via various channels,” said Vinod Sagre, Deputy RTO.

With the new permit, the RTO has started scrapping old auto-rickshaws. As per the officials, the number of new auto-rickshaws increased in the city, the old rickshaws plying illegally on the road are being scrapped. An average of 200-400 old auto-rickshaws get scrapped every year and this year the number has crossed 1,350 by the end of October.