The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Magazine highlights problems of autorickshaw drivers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Magazine highlights problems of autorickshaw drivers

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: : A magazine catering to the autorickshaw industry and acting as a bridge among the Government, autorickshaw drivers and the people was launched here on Saturday.

Published by V. Narayanan, founder-president of Indian National Organisation for Developmental Action (INODA), a non-government organisation, the magazine hopes to highlight the problems faced by drivers, even while addressing the issues raised by commuters and autorickshaw unions.

Commissioner of Greater Chennai Police R. Nataraj handed over the first copy to N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu .

Mr. Narayanan highlighted the need for constituting a regulatory authority to fix the autorickshaw fare, the biggest problem faced by the industry. The regulatory body, modelled after those set up for fixing power and telecom tariff, would be independent; and hence, the Government need not be seriously concerned about the political fallout of any fare increase fixed by the regulator.

He said the first issue contained the results of a survey conducted across the city among 274 autorickshaw drivers. The survey showed that most of the drivers did not have a clear idea or judgment of the distance to be travelled. For example, when asked about the distance between two points, only 30 per cent of the drivers could judge it correctly at 8 km, while 50 per cent overshot the mark and 20 per cent put it less than the actual distance. At a time when the fare was fixed mostly through `negotiations between a driver and a passenger', a poor judgment of the distance led to problems in fixing the fare. This issue had to be addressed, he said.

The whole sector ought to be treated as an industry, because in Chennai alone, it was worth Rs.1,000 crores , considering that nearly 60,000 autorickshaws operated in the city, each generating Rs.500 daily. The first issue carried a map of the city, giving the actual distance between two points.

Mr. Nataraj said he would take up the issue of fare with the Government.

Fare structure

Mr. Ram said the present fare structure was fixed when the fuel cost was Rs.23 a litre. Today, fuel was sold at over Rs.42, but the fare had not changed. He hoped the Government, which announced a set of sops for the autorickshaw industry, would address fare revision.

R. Desikan, Trustee, Concert, said he recently met the Chief Secretary, asking for a new fare of Rs.10 for the first two km and Rs.5 for each subsequent km.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu