HYDERABAD: It was business as usual in Hyderabad. After a slew of relaxations that were announced by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, the roads were teeming with people on Tuesday who went about their work. At several places, there were traffic jams, something that was not a commonplace in the last two months.
But despite the relaxations, there were people who were cautious not to venture out immediately.
Auto-rickshaws and cabs were out on the streets since early morning, but there were not many takers as they preferred waiting and watching as to how the day would go.
However, those who ventured out were reluctant to follow the social distancing norms and were piling onto the vehicles, felt auto-rickshaw and cab drivers. V Srinivas, an auto-rickshaw driver, said: “The passengers are not ready to take more than one auto as it is expensive.”
The State government has laid down specific rules for physical distancing whereby an auto should only ply with two passengers and a car with three passengers. This was not being followed on the very first day.
Cab drivers look to govt, aggregators for safety
Meanwhile, cab and taxi drivers, who predominantly are linked with cab aggregators, noted that the government and the cab aggregators must support them to make their cabs safe. “The companies must provide gloves, fibre sheets and sanitisers for us to be able to maintain the best level of hygiene,” said Shaik Salauddin, chairman of Telangana State Taxi and Drivers’ JAC.
He further noted that the companies must fix a set of 10-12 rides per cab here onwards as public transport is likely to take a hit, with more and more opting for personal modes of commute. While the estimates by the JAC suggest that 26,000 cabbies turned up for work in and around Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal, each driver did not get more than 5-6 rides on Tuesday.