Home News Auto raj on city roads in the offing

Auto raj on city roads in the offing

A long-standing demand for more autorickshaws within the city limits is likely to become a reality with the Motor Vehicles Department’s recommendation to the State government to sanction more autorickshaw permits in Kochi and Kozhikode municipal corporations.

But considering the high pollution levels, diesel autorickshaws will not be issued new permits. The recommendation made by Transport Commissioner Tomin J. Thachankary also called for converting the existing diesel autorickshaws into CNG or LPG-powered ones in a phased manner.

The city permit autorickshaws will be given separate colour and numbers, which is expected to help identify illegally-operated autos.

The decision to allot more city permits in the two corporations comes after a successful experiment in Thiruvananthapuram where 10,000 new city permits were sanctioned.

Ernakulam Regional Transport Officer P.H. Sadik Ali said that 10,000 new city permits had been recommended for Kochi city as well. “As per a study conducted a couple of years ago, around 15,000 autos were operating illegally within the city limits following which we legalised around 2,700 services taking the total number of city permits to 4,500. A request placed before the State government through the Corporation to sanction another 3,000 city permits had been pending since then,” he said.

Effective mechanism

 The existing operators in the city have also been demanding an effective mechanism to prevent the illegal entry and operation of autos from outside the city. They often complain that the illegal operators appropriated their business. “The Thiruvananthapuram experiment effectively addressed this issue prompting Mr. Thachankary to recommend it in the other two cities as well,” he said.

But the condition that diesel autos will not be issued city permits will put the brakes on any proposed move to legalise the existing illegal operators since majority of them have diesel autos.

Mr. Ali said that it was possible for these operators to convert the autos into CNG or LNG-powered ones and hoped that the government would subsidise such conversions considering the aspect of environment protection.

“City permits had not been increased in the last 21 years in Kochi and Kozhikode. However, the number of autos operating illegally in these cities had increased over time,” said Mr. Thachankary.

Illegal operation of autos from outside the city limits often caused trouble to the public and created law and order problems since in some instances they were found to be controlled by miscreants.

That the corporations had grown in size by incorporating adjoining panchayats was another factor that was considered by the authorities.

News : The Hindu

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