E-rickshaw would have been a bad idea for Mumbai.
Mumbai has been spared the onslaught of e-rickshaws. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, during an interaction with dna journalists, said the government had no plans, as of now, to introduce e-rickshaws in the city.
Fadnavis said the state government was following the e-rickshaw concept as a means to upgrade the work profile of cycle rickshaw-pullers. Incidentally, this category of transport does not exist in Mumbai.
A query sent by dna to Mumbai traffic police joint commissioner Milind Bharambe and transport commissioner Praveen Gedam on whether the state had conducted any study on the effects of e-rickshaws in Mumbai did not elicit any answer.
The unions, however, are clear that e-rickshaws are a bad idea for the city. "We have been saying regularly that e-rickshaws are unsafe both for passengers and drivers. Moreover, its top speed of 25 kmph means that the average speed of traffic in any city will go down further. That will lead to a huge wastage of fuel for faster-moving vehicles. E-rickshaw is nothing short of a disaster, which is going to make several families penniless," said Thampi Kurien of the Mumbai Rickshawmen's Union.
Another official said the problem with e-rickshaws was that expecting them to ply only on smaller roads would be futile. "Look at how motorcyclists use the JJ flyover and the Eastern Freeway, despite restrictions on them. The traffic police just cannot manage it. Similarly, e-rickshaws will make their way into arterial roads and slow down traffic. Police would not have enough staff strength to curb them," said the official.
Mumbai has nearly 1950km of road and sees about 600 new vehicles being registered at its five regional transport offices every day. The release of new permits has meant that now, there are close to 1.47 lakh auto-rickshaws in the city, along with around 35000 taxis.
As highlighted by dna in its August 4 edition, the state transport department, on August 3, had decided to start the process of giving permits for e-rickshaws and e-carts at Latur, Amravati, Buldhana, Akola, Nagpur and Wardha, under provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act-1988.
On October 10, 2014, the Central government had included e-rickshaw as a separate vehicle category under the Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 and had asked the state government to take up the case of allotting e-rickshaws in transport offices under their jurisdiction on merit.
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 "Rickshaw (Representational Image)")
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