Confusion over legal auto figures

The Metrology and transport departments are divided over the number of auto rickshaws plying on the city roads; unions not far behind either

Confusion prevails between the Department of Legal Metrology and Transport department on number of auto rickshaws plying in the city as both have different figures, with a difference of 17,000. This is apart from the unofficial figured confirmed by various auto unions and experts in the city, which comes up to around 1.15 lakh.


Sham: According to Jai Karnataka Auto Union, there are more than
30,000 illegal autos plying on the city roads. Representation pic

This shows that thousands of auto rickshaws are plying in the city without valid permit. As per the Transport department, there are around 75,000 autos plying with valid permits, but the department has given permits
to 80,000.

But the Legal Metrology department has different figured. They say that there are around 63,000 autos as per their records. Whereas experts say the figure is 1.2 lakh.

Traffic Expert Prof M N Sreehari says, "There are around 1.15 lakh autos plying in the city of which around 80,000 autos are registered. The transport department has no control over such autos. The RTO has to be strict and should have regular checks.

There are autos from other states such as Kerala (KL) and Maharashtra (MH) that are plying without changing the registration to KA."

Assistant Controller, Legal Metrology, Auto and Taxi Unit, M Gopalappa said, "There are around 63,000 autos in the city with legal permits. We got this figure on the basis of vehicles which come for recalibrating their meters over the last two years."

Ignored deadline
Despite October 15 being the deadline, many auto drivers had not recalibrated their meters. "As of today, around 60,000 autos have recalibrated their meters. Around 2,000 autos are still plying without recalibrating. If caught, they will be fined up to Rs 2,000," he added.

Even the auto drivers unions have different figures.u00a0Each union in Bangalore has different numbers and they agree that there are illegal autos plying on city roads. "The transport department has given permits for 80,000 autos to ply in the city. There are at least 10,000 more autos plying without permits.

There are many auto rickshaws of other states such as Kerala and Maharashtra," said Adarsha Auto Drivers Union President M Manjunath.

S Jayaram, president, Jai Karnataka Auto Union says, "There are around 1.15 lakh autos in the city, out of which 78,000 have legal permits. This means there are more than 30,000 illegal autos."

1.15 lakh Approximate number of autos in the city