The 12 women drivers for the eight ‘Pink Autos’ exclusively for women passengers are running the autos without ‘driving licences’ for the past three months. Owners of these autos who launched the three-wheeler vehicles early this year are consistently failing to obtain the licences.
Despite the fact, the number of autos will increase to 12 by next month. “We had applied for the driving license at transport office when the autos were launched. A paper regarding learner’s license was provided which was given to the ladies. Thereafter, we failed to get the actual driving license,” said pink-auto manager Sanjay Sahu.
“The learner’s license is valid for three months. We tried a lot to get papers for another learner’s license so that the actual driving license can be procured. Till date, we are facing hassles in getting the license,” Sahu added.
Sources maintained, the auto-owners have not approached the office of district transport officer after the delay of license in the first attempt.
Meanwhile, observing the increasing demand of pink-autos among the women, each of the 12 drivers will soon own one auto.
Presently, two drivers are deployed for one auto. “We earn around `1000 to `1200 every day. It is a sign of women empowerment. So, each one of us have decided to own one auto. Earlier, there were six autos. Two more were unveiled on the occasion of Dhanteras on October 21,” said auto-driver Heera Devi.
The two new autos launched last week belong to Pinky and Madalli who managed an amount of `40,000 out of the `1.5 lakh from bank. The remaining amount will be paid through Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) of `2,600 to `27,000 every month.
Driver Sunita Devi felt there is an urgent need of increasing the autos as passengers often request them to begin a regular service in their routes. Sahu said the documents for the four autos will be processed within a week. “We have planned to launch the four new autos owned by four drivers by November,” Sahu said.
Besides, these formalities, all the pink autos are likely to have Global Positioning System (GPS) by the mid of next month. GPS installed in any vehicle helps in keeping a record of the location and time information of the auto in all climatic conditions.
Also, the entire body of the auto will be coloured in pink. As of now, the upper portion of the auto is pink in colour while the lower portion is in green colour. TVS, the authorized company has agreed to change the colour.