New auto fare card released

“We are going to print stickers with the formula for calculation of the auto fare. It will be “meter reading X 7 + 3”. These stickers will be available within a week and auto rickshaw drivers are expected to use these stickers within a fortnight,failing which they will be penalised,” said Chandrakant Kharatmal,Regional Transport Officer.

Kharatmal has reiterated that commuters can send their complaints over SMS. “If there is a demand for excess fare,or if they refuse to ply or arrogant behaviour or other grievances,commuters can message the place,date,time and the auto registration number to 59994,” said Kharatmal.

Meanwhile,across the city,auto drivers were reluctant to ply by the new fares. “It’s not from today. Tarrif is not in our hands. We will ply by Rs 7 per km,only after we receive the new rate card,” said Ramesh Shirke,an autorickshaw driver.

Kothrud Rickshaw Sanghatana representative said that they will accept the new rates only after they saw the rate card. “The RTO will be able to publish the rate cards after next week,” he said.

Another auto driver said that they had seen the new fares only in the media and therefore cannot be sure.

Many commuters had to pay by the old auto rate. “When I insisted on paying by the new fare,the auto driver took a long winded route and dropped me off in the middle of nowhere and refused to go ahead from there. I had to wait for some time to catch another auto. His reasoning was,“agar naya fares pata hai,tho naya rasta bhi pata hoga,” said Keerti Srivastav,a Viman Nagar resident.