The alternate traffic plan adopted by traffic police and Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) recently to ease out traffic congestion along major routes may prove to be a bane for commuters who are heavily dependent on autos and e-rickshaws for public transportation.
Disappointed with the decision to allocate routes to e-rickshaw owners through lottery procedure and to use similar technique to limit the movement of diesel autos, petrol auto-rickshaws within the municipal corporation area in the coming days, the auto-rickshaw sangh leaders have called indefinite strike from March 1.
Recently, the traffic police and RMC have allotted specific routes to e-rickshaw owners. As per the new plan, approximately 735 e-rickshaws will now ferry passengers only on 24 specific routes. Those breaching the norms will have to pay hefty fines of `25,000, if caught by the traffic police.
Similarly, to limit the movement of diesel autos, petrol autos with or without permits will not be allowed to carry passengers as the administration is gearing up to soon conduct another lottery for these auto owners to restrict their arbitrariness as they are the main cause of traffic jam along the major routes.
“We cannot take the decision back as distribution of routes was a major step to limit the arbitrariness of the auto owners who recklessly ply their autos at any route without worrying about the traffic jam. The decision is in public interest. We have to take stringent action as traffic jam, encroachments need to be addressed on priority basis,” said, Traffic SP, Sanjay Ranjan Singh.
Notably, adopting some stringent measures to put a hold on unruliness of auto drivers, the traffic police and RMC have now restricted the movement of e-rickshaws to just 35 at each selected route and similar measures will be adopted for other auto owners as well freeing up some busy roads from blockage.
“The administration must take back the decision and allow the auto drivers to ply on any route. Similarly, other rickshaw owners those are having permits must be kept out of the lottery procedure. The administration must think about the hefty fines that will be charged from e-rickshaws for plying autos in other routes. Administration must take back its decision,” said, president, Jharkhand Pradesh Diesel Autochalak Mahasangh, Dinesh Soni.