City falls short on authorised autos

The list of 1,300 autorickshaws having authorised permits to conduct services in the city will be published by the Motor Vehicles Department on Monday.

The list is being published as apart of the efforts to streamline the autos in the city. However, the number of autorickshaws having permits is less than the actual requirement. As per the initial assessment, the city requires nearly 7,000 autos to cater to the needs of the public.

“A total of 4,000 permits can be issued. But when we conducted Adalats to identify the existing ones which have permits, only 1300  autorickshaws were reported. This shows that the remaining autos that were issued permits are not conducting services or are not in use. Now, we will have to issue the permits to other autorickshaws,” said Regional Transport Officer (RTO) B J Antony.

However, the RTO said that 4,000 permits will be enough for the first phase of the regularisation programme.  “We are taking into account only those vehicles that are conducting services in the city limits. The first task is to issue the permits to all the autos that are conducting services in the city which I believe will come around 5,000,” he said.

The next meeting of the Regional Transport Authority scheduled for next week will discuss the issue of giving permits to the remaining autos. “As of now, we do not have the right to  issue more than 4,000 permits in Kochi. If more number of permits are to be issued, then we will have to wait for the government to issue an order in this regard,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mayor Tony Chammany said that if the number of autos are high, then the civic body will request the state government to issue an order to approve more permits. The decision to streamline autorickshaw service was taken by the Corporation following an increase in complaints of drivers misbehaving with passengers and fleecing them.

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