CHENNAI: The long wait for digital meters enabled with Global Positioning System (GPS), which would track movement of auto rickshaws plying in the city, is likely to end soon. The meters will also have an SOS emergency button for the safety of passengers.
Auto drivers have gained notoriety for charging excess fares and it is expected that the new meters would reign in the practice, besides providing law enforcement officials a tool for surveillance.
Nearly four years after it was proposed to be installed, sources in the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT), the agency entrusted with the responsibility, said, “subsequent to a tendering process, we have identified the firm that will supply the meters.”
“The approval of state government is currently awaited, after which steps will be taken to procure the meters,” an official told Express.
The facility has two main benefits viz., tracking the movement of autos and the provision of emergency button. Passengers would also receive a printed receipt of the fare, based on the distance travelled.
But auto drivers’ unions highlighted some of their grievances. “We have been told to pay an annual maintenance fee of over Rs 1500. This is unfair. Besides, there are other issues such as possible tampering of the GPS meters,” said S Balasubramaniam, State Joint Secretary of CITU, affiliated to CPI(M).