A major chunk of auto-rickshaws plying without permits would be weeded out soon from the Capital City. In a major attempt to curtail traffic snarl along the major avenues in State Capital, the Municipal Corporation has decided to prohibit the operation of all such diesel auto-rickshaws plying on city routes without proper documents.
The decision has been taken to boost up the urban transportation system in the city as increasing number of autos is one prime cause of traffic blockage. The civic body has planned to deploy 250 marshals and 100 home-guards personnel to keep a tab on auto-rickshaw drivers operation.
In a bid to maintain the new regulations as per the decision made by the Transportation Cell of Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) a while ago, all the autos having permits will be embedded with QR Code as well, stated an RMC official.
On the recommendation of traffic co-ordination committee, approximately 2500 autos will be only given permission to ply on different city routes in Ranchi to streamline the present traffic status. Any auto-rickshaw driver found ferrying passengers without permit and valid documents, a fine amount of Rs. 25,000 will be charged from him.
As per the records of Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), as many as one lakh commuters in State capital are dependent on different modes of public transportation. However, in the days to come, the new arrangement and sudden decline in the number of diesel auto-rickshaws may create problem for the passengers travelling long distances.
On Wednesday, around 2052 auto-rickshaws drivers were given passes after verifying their documents.
According to the records available with RMC, approximately 15,000 diesel and petrol autos are ferrying passengers within Municipal Corporation without any valid documents.
Notably, Regional Transport Authority (RTA) has provided licence to only 2335 registered autos to ply within municipal periphery. The Jharkhand High Court had earlier clearly mentioned that autos with permits can only ferry passengers in capital city.
“On public demand, we have tried to boost up the existing transportation system in urban vicinity accordingly. In the first phase, we have given permits to approximately 1200 e-rickshaws to ease down the penetration of diesel and petrol autos. In the second round, we have increased the number of city buses from 45 to 91. The Municipal Corporation has recently submitted a requisition to the Urban Transportation department to increase the number of city buses after this new plan,” said, City Manager (RMC, Transportation Cell), Saurabh Kumar.
On the other hand, after much hue and cry over the maintenance of old city buses by the new city bus operator, from June 11 making the bus service more reliable, approximately, 91 city buses will ferry passengers in four different new routes identified by Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and RMC.
According to the new route chart plan, the city buses will convey passengers covering routes from Namkom to Ratu, Project Building to Kutchery Chowk, Kutchery Chowk to ITI Bus Stand, Tupudana to Birsa Chowk and Harmu to Kanke.