Barely two days after transport minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil inaugurated the share-an-auto service outside the station road in Bandra (East) with much fanfare, auto drivers, commuters and traffic police officials got into a verbal tussle over it.
Barely two days after transport minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil inaugurated the share-an-auto service outside the station road in Bandra (East) with much fanfare, auto drivers, commuters and traffic police officials got into a verbal tussle over it.
According to sources, when officials from the Andheri RTO visited the spot on Saturday morning, they fined several auto drivers for overcharging passengers or refusing to ply on the share-auto basis. In the evening, the traffic police had its own men on the ground to assess the implementation of the scheme, and they too fined at least five drivers for various reasons. As a result, many auto drivers decided against plying their autos for the day, inconveniencing several commuters.
DNA spoke to auto drivers who complained that the scheme is deeply flawed as a majority of commuter traffic is Bandra-Kurla Complex-bound, instead of Government Colony, GN Colony or New English School — the three destinations assigned for the share-auto service. They also pointed out that there is simply no space for enough autos to be parked close to the official share auto stands. This is because two of them are very close to each other and to the auto stand for individual travellers, and the third is far from the eastern side of station, behind the parking space for taxis.
“We want an auto stand close to the station,” said Khwaja Hussain, an auto driver. Another auto driver, Niyaz Ahmad Mahapuri, said, there was much confusion among commuters about the locations to which share-an-auto service has been started. “No one is willing to go on metre to BKC,” he claimed.
For those auto drivers who are willing to take commuters to BKC on share basis, there is the issue of fares. Since the transport department capped the fares at a maximum of Rs6, commuters are unwilling to pay more. Says Mohammad Musaddi, an auto driver, “BKC is a very big area and thus there cannot be uniform fares for the entire area. Also, it’s unfair to expect us to charge Rs6 when even the BEST buses charges Rs7 for the journey. Why can’t we charge Rs10 when driving passengers to BKC on a share basis?”
Amid all the confusion, passengers who did want to take the share autos could not find autos as the drivers refused to ply. When DNA spoke to police inspector (traffic) of Vakola division, Sujata Patil, she said that the traffic police were only ensuring that the share-an-auto system functions well.
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