USEFUL INTERACTION: Transport Commissioner Narayana Gowda (right) speaking to participants at a training programme for autorickshaw and taxi drivers in Bangalore on Wednesday. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

BANGALORE: The Transport Department will soon open a 24-hour call centre in Bangalore to register complaints about problems faced by the public while hiring autorickshaws.

Transport Commissioner M.C. Narayana Gowda said this at the inauguration of "Capacity building programme for service providers" organised by the Karnataka Tourism Forum, the Tourism Department and the Transport Department here on Wednesday.

The call centre, Mr. Gowda said, would help the department maintain a database of erring autorickshaw drivers.

Any continuous violation of rules by way of excess fare collection or refusal to ply on a particular route would make the driver lose his driving licence, he said.

The department would sternly deal with autorickshaw drivers who refuse to move into the pre-paid stands in the city, he said.

The department would not hesitate to suspend or cancel the permit of a particular autorickshaw if the driver was found to be persistently flouting the rules.

On conversion of autorickshaws manufactured before January 2002 to bi-fuel model with retrofit gas kits, the Commissioner said about 20,000 vehicles were yet to be fitted with these kits. Although the deadline of July 18 has expired, the department has proposed to the Government to extend the same by a month, he said. Vehicles getting converted after the deadline would be ineligible to receive the subsidy amount, he said.

Forum president K. Venkataraman said service providers such as autorickshaw and taxi drivers were the cultural ambassadors of the country.

They should be groomed to meet the customer's expectations. Every autorickshaw driver participating in the training programme would get a certificate and Rs. 100 stipend by the India Tourism.

Mr. Venkataraman said that the forum and India Tourism had decided to train over 10,000 service providers in Karnataka in this financial year and planned to cover hotel staff, drivers, travel consultants, dhaba staff and so on in Hassan, Mysore, Hospet, Mangalore, Badami, Belur and Kodagu.

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