MATTER OF CONCERN: Despite a warning, autorickshaws are stopped for passengers at Jagadamba junction.— Photo: K. R. Deepak

VISAKHAPATNAM: Autorickshaws are more or less indispensable in a major city like Visakhapatnam where one cannot depend entirely on RTC buses whose services are grossly inadequate.

As people are forced to depend on autorickshaws, the latter fully exploit them. There are no meters, no fixed rates. One has to shell down whatever the amount the auto driver demands. Here again there is no choice. If you turn down one auto driver, he ensures another auto driver does not oblige you. Workers of the world unite! Traffic police try to control things to some extent, particularly at the railway station. But elsewhere, the autorickshaws rule the roost.

Exorbitant charges

Apart from exorbitant charges, the autorickshaws create considerable nuisance to all others as well. In the name of oil conservation, most of the auto drivers stop the engine at the junctions. And they do not start as soon as the green signal is on. If you are exactly behind an auto, you are in for trouble.

And going by the experience of a colleague, it is not safe if the auto is behind you either. For, the other day a speeding auto hit his car from behind at a junction stop, damaging the rear bumper and lamp panel of the car.

Of late, the most detestable part is that the autorickshaws stop suddenly to take and drop more and more commuters, creating problems for the vehicles immediately behind them. Another aspect is that they encroach upon near road junctions and set up auto stands, park the autos near every bus stop soliciting commuters, creating bottlenecks on the already congested busy junction roads. Photo shows how the autos are breaking even the `no parking zone' rule with impunity.

It is high time that the traffic police did something to check their ways.

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