Pune: 23 auto-rickshaw stands to be shut, 17,000 drivers fined in last two months

Move comes weeks after rape of 14-year-old — accused included auto drivers.

The lack of an auto-rickshaw stand was inconveniencing the residents in certain pockets. (File)

THE Pune traffic police have decided to shut down 23 autorickshaw stands in the city in a bid to ease traffic congestion as well as from “security point of view”, according to officials. In the last two months, traffic police have also fined over 17,000 autorickshaw drivers for allegedly violating various norms.

The move comes in the wake of the rape of a 14-year-old girl by multiple men in September; most of the accused in the case were autorickshaw drivers.

Read | Pune: 70-year-old woman found murdered at home, gold worth Rs 2 lakh stolen

“We have decided to shut down at least 23 autorickshaw stands located in different parts of the city. The immediate reason for their closure is the traffic chaos their presence causes on a particular road…from security point of view too, they have been found unsuitable and unsafe,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Rahul Shrirame told The Indian Express on Sunday.

Story continues below this ad

Shrirame said the department has proposed setting up of 13 new autorickshaw stands in the city. The decision to shut down the auto stands, Shrirame said, was taken after a survey by the traffic department.

Also Read | Maharashtra’s unusual proposal to sugar mills: recover unpaid power dues from farmers, get 10 pc of amount as reward

At present, around 72,000 autorickshaws are plying on Pune roads. “And we have around 550 autorickshaw stands… Those necessary will be allowed to continue, those which cause congestion or are not fit from security point of view will be moved from their spot,” he said.

Also Read | Pune Metro ‘priority sections’ to be ready for operations by Dec-end

Shrirame said the department has also taken stern action against autorickshaw drivers violating norms by not wearing uniforms, not possessing licences, badges and permits, not following the directions regarding safe driving and not displaying their phone numbers prominently on their vehicles.

“We have largely succeeded in enforcing discipline among the autorickshaw drivers following the rape a 14-year-old girl in which it was found that most of the accused were auto drivers,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

“Of the 17,000 auto drivers fined, as many as 12,000 were found not wearing their uniforms. Following our action, autorickshaw drivers have started strictly following the uniform norm. Wearing uniform is important to identify those who are plying illegally,” the Deputy Commissioner of Police said.

Shrirame said that initially the traffic police was carrying out the drive to streamline the functioning of autorickshaws in tandem with the Regional Transport Office.

“However, the traffic police is now taking strict action on their own against those violating the laid-down norms,” he said.

– Stay updated with the latest Pune news. Follow Express Pune on Twitter here and on Facebook here. You can also join our Express Pune Telegram channel here.f

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories