The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Pre-paid autorickshaws at Egmore station soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 22, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Pre-paid autorickshaws at Egmore station soon

S.Vijay Kumar

Photo: K.V.Srinivasan

Pre-paid autorickshaw system at the main entrance to Egmore station on Gandhi Irwin could ensure in smooth flow of traffic in the area. A scene of autorickshaws waiting for customers near a bus stand on the road, on Wednesday. —

CHENNAI: Pre-paid autorickshaw service will be launched on the EVR Salai side entrance of Egmore railway station in a week. The Chennai Corporation has earmarked space for constructing a booth there.

Depending on patronage, it will be introduced at the main entry of the station on Gandhi Irwin Salai.

At a meeting of Government Railway Police and Transport Department officials here on Wednesday, it was also decided to revamp the pre-paid autorickshaw system at the Chennai Central railway station. “Though there are about 600 autorickshaw drivers registered with the Railways, many of them prefer not to operate under the pre-paid system. However, they treat it as a matter of right to park the vehicles on railway premises. We want to regulate this and create a system where autorickshaws entering the station premises shall compulsorily join the prepaid queue,” Superintendent of Police (Railways) S.Manoharan told The Hindu.

Steps had been taken to issue computerised slip at pre-paid counters that would comprise the fare, destination and driving licence number of the driver.

“While the tariff is fixed by the Transport Department, our objective is to ensure the safety of the passenger. We want to ascertain the genuineness of the driver who takes passengers, many of whom are new to Chennai,” he said.

Mr.Manoharan said that barricades were erected at the Central station to prevent autorickshaw drivers from entering platforms or the concourse to solicit passengers, which is a punishable offence. The railway police had been deployed at the main entrance to prevent violation of pre-paid norms.

“We have now issued photo identity cards to autorickshaw drivers coming under the pre-paid system. Any autorickshaw going out of the Central station with passengers has to necessarily have the slip issued by pre-paid booth. The RTO officials have agreed to conduct surprise checks and ensure this. To monitor the compliance, we have installed a surveillance camera at the pre-paid booth.”

Mr.Manoharan said that pre-paid autorickshaw services on the EVR Salai side of the Egmore station would commence in a week.

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

Tamil Nadu