Share autos set to become more expensive in western suburbs

Fares charged under the share-an-auto scheme on more than 25 routes in the western suburbs are likely to increase soon. It is unclear, however, how much will the increase be.

Officials from the regional transport office in Andheri, along with a traffic police official and some representatives of the auto union, conducted a survey of 25 share-auto routes between Bandra and Dahisar in October. It was done to assess, among other things, the increase in traffic density as it has an impact on the fares.

Some of these routes are: Family court and the ICICI bank in the Bandra-Kurla Complex; New English School, Government Colony and Guru Nanak Road in Bandra (East); Sahar Cargo and JB Nagar in Andheri; Anupam Talkies and Bangur Nagar in Goregaon; Panchsheel Garden, Charkop Industry, Hindustan Naka and Mahavir Nagar in Kandivli; IC Colony, Saibaba Nagar, Aksaar Village and LIC Colony in Borivli; MIT Chowki in Malad and the Air India quarters in Santa Cruz.

According to auto union leader Thampy Kurien, the survey was necessary because the current fares have been decided on the basis of a survey of these routes done more than a decade ago. And since the traffic on these routes has increased astronomically, the waiting time at signals has also increased. This leads to higher fares, which need to be factored in to increase the participation of auto drivers in the scheme and thereby increase the availability of share autos for commuters.

As of now, the much-publicised share-an-auto scheme of the motor vehicles department is successful on relatively few routes. Some of the problems which hinder the effective functioning of the scheme include reluctant and dis-incentivised auto drivers who choose to ply regular commuters, not-so-popular routes, competition from BEST buses on others, and importantly, less tariff per passenger that either induces auto drivers to take more than three passengers illegally or ply on the regular, metered routes.

An RTO official, who spoke with DNA on the condition of anonymity, said, the amount of increase has not been estimated yet. “Before the final approval of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority (MMRTA), there may be some modifications to the proposed increase in fares.”