The process to issue autorickshaw permits has started but slowed down due to the general elections, which are round the corner. It will take a minimum of six months for new autorickshaws to hit the road.
As of Thursday, only eight of the over 20,000 autorickshaws awaiting permits for suburban Mumbai limits have come on the roads.
According to an official, the work has slowed down due to election duty being allotted to several officials at the Regional Transport Office. Moreover, no separate staff has been appointed to take care of the permit issuance process.
Even after the 'Letter of Intent' is issued to the eligible applicants, the winner should have enough money to buy the three-wheeler. At times, this step of purchasing takes a bit longer time, as funds have to be arranged by the winning individuals.
"Actually, the individual Regional Transport Authority (RTA) was to handle the entire permit issuance process, right from placing advertisements, asking people to apply for permits, to holding lottery draw. But that would have resulted in an unnecessary waste of resource. We, therefore, thought to take care of the initial process and hold the draw in this manner (online). There is a common set of rules and the process, right from the first step, is transparent for the public (to see)," said VN More, transport commissioner.
After the draw was conducted on February 26, the list of winners and waitlisted candidates was sent to each of the RTAs across state. In all, 81,456 autorickshaw permits are being issued in Maharashtra.
As first reported by dna, the first two people to complete all formalities to become the newest permit holders and autorickshaw owners are Nitin Kamble of Dahisar and Ravindra Bhosle from Govandi.
The state government is re-issuing dead permits after 17 years — it had stopped issuing in 1997.
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