CHENNAI: Strictly monitored by police, the pre-paid auto counters at Chennai Central and Egmore railway stations, and the CMBT have provided relief to passengers previously fleeced by auto drivers. Many commuters, in the past, have complained about how the demanded auto fare would be equivalent to that of a call-taxi.
However, with strict enforcement of the ‘meter only rule’ for autos in Chennai, the concept of pre-paid stand is rendered redundant. Why should someone opt for a pre-paid auto, paying three rupees extra for the receipt for a service, which ideally should cost around the same in a metered auto?
At these stands, one can get a printed receipt which displays the fare to be paid directly to the auto-driver. The fare is calculated based on RTO regulations in accordance with the meter charge of Rs 12 per km, as mandated by the government.
“This is the same question we asked our superiors while inaugurating the new stands outside the Egmore Railway Station,” a senior police official told CE. “We were told that it was necessary as the auto drivers waiting outside used to demand higher charges. Despite proper implementation of the rule, there are a few who don’t adhere to it. The pre-paid system eliminates that part of the passengers’ problem,” he explained.
According to the official, the USP of these stands is accountability, as the receipt given to the passenger has the registration number of the auto and contact details of the driver. In case passengers misplace any belongings in the auto, a regular happening at railway stations and bus terminals, the booth serves as a single point destination in locating the particular auto.
Auto drivers at Egmore recalled an incident where a woman was able to trace her misplaced phone by approaching the counter staff, who promptly identified the auto with the receipt.
Though the police official claimed that any auto could enter the pre-paid booth, only those autos registered with the union concerned can make their way into that stand. Some of these autos form a queue outside the terminals, where traffic police constables operate booths to give passengers slips of paper bearing the stamp ‘Metered Fare only’.
Some auto drivers like S Muniyandi, not part of the pre-paid stand, said that the fare could be Rs 10 more than the meter charge, which was refuted by the stand members. “These pre-paid counters will not take savari less than two kilometres, for example from Central to Sowcarpet, but we are forced to take them by meter which eats into our earning,” alleged Kasi, an auto stand leader, who operates just outside the Central Railway Station. For many commuters, the presence of law enforcers comes as a relief. “These counters are run under the watchful eyes of the traffic police, hence I know that they are reliable,” said 75-year-old K Ramadoss, awaiting his turn at the counter at Chennai Central.
“The fare is lesser compared to autos waiting outside the station,” R Swaminathan, a regular traveller to Chennai from Bengaluru, said. “People don’t have to haggle with auto drivers as the rates are fixed. They can get down at any place within the locality mentioned in the slip without paying extra,” said B Sivaraj, secretary of an auto union.
At present, an average of 400 people per day use the facility at each counter in Central and Egmore, while the three booths at Koyambedu see a daily footfall of 250. However, passengers waiting in the queue continue to be approached by drivers trying to bargain for a higher fare. Traffic police officials reveal that some auto drivers refuse to ferry people for short journeys. “Everybody wants a savari which earns them `150 or more,” a police official said.
At CMBT, a few drivers were seen trying to convince the operator to pass on short-distance passengers to others, while retaining the long-distance ones. “It is totally a luck-based system,” the union head at CMBT said, displaying a software which tracks the journey and fare collected by each auto in the stand.
The night fare, which is one-and-a-half times higher than the normal fare, has not been addressed by the computerised system, which has often led to war of words. There is no uniformity at the three pre-paid stands operating at CMBT, two of which charge Rs 3 as service charge, while the third one charges Rs 5.