BENGALURU: After pink Hoysalas and reserved parking spaces, Bengaluru is all set to get a fleet of pink auto rickshaws reserved only for women. Come January, the pink autos will be on the road. Only women and children will be allowed to ply in these though drivers can be male or female.
About 20 per cent of autos that are distributed under the social welfare scheme of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike will be reserved for women, according to Bengaluru Mayor Sampath Raj.
The design of the auto will be the same as the existing ones but will be painted pink to help distinguish them. The move comes a week after reservations were made in Brigade Road for women drivers.
Raj said that the pink autos will start running from January. “BBMP distributes 300-400 autos under the social welfare scheme. Under this, we plan to designate 20 per cent as Pink Autos. This will be started in a pilot phase from January,” he added.
There will also be a subsidy of up to `25,000 for those purchasing the autos in order to encourage more people to ply them, said the mayor. The BBMP is also in talks with various companies seeking CSR support to run these autos.
“We have already had the first meeting in this regard. We decided to go ahead with this after seeing an impressive response to the parking reservation. Joint commissioners have been directed to take the initiative forward,” he said.