Jaipur: The transport department has restarted registration process of e-rickshaws which had been stopped for over a year. The registration had been halted because the e-rickshaws were causing traffic congestion, especially in the Walled City area.
Ravi Jain, commissioner, transport department said, “The registration of the e-rickshaws had been halted because there were too many of them in the city which was resulting in traffic congestion, especially in the old city. Now we have started the registration again after taking stock of all the e-rickshaws in the city.”
According to officials, there are approximately 14,000 e-rickshaws in Jaipur and a committee of various stakeholders will be constituted for the functioning of the vehicles. A policy will also be drafted for their registration and giving licences. The transport department had also ordered that e-rickshaw dealers will have to submit an affidavit with a declaration to conduct a 10-day drivers’ training programme for the e-rickshaw drivers.
The officials also stated that zones will be divided in which the e-rickshaws will be operational and charging points will be installed at various locations.
“Training of the e-rickshaw drivers is essential as they move throughout the city. Since they are not trained properly, they, at times, cause accidents due to erratic driving. This was also one of the reasons because of which the registration was stopped for some time. It was also found that many of them do not have licences. We are trying to resolve this issue as well,” added an official.
A few years back, the Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation (JMRC) has played a key role in getting the e-rickshaws registered with the regional transport office (RTO) and making driving licences compulsory for the drivers. The state government had notified e-rickshaw as a vehicle under the Motor Vehicles Act.