Switch to CNG/LPG: City autos unlikely to meet April 30 deadline

“In all,309 autos have registered with us after converting to CNG. An additional 500 applications are pending with us,” said RTO Chandrakant Kharatmal,adding that autorickshaw owners were more interested in CNG now,than in LPG. Autorickshaw owners have to register with the RTO and pay a nominal fee of Rs 50 after conversion to CNG.

“Many more are likely to come in the next few days. The conversion kit costs around Rs 25,000,for which many auto rickshaws are approaching banks. Also when the 60-day deadline was set by the RTA,we did not factor the impending elections,” he said. Dilip Band,divisional commissioner and RTA chairperson did not comment because of the election code of conduct. However,it does look likely that the city autorickshaws will get an extended deadline to convert to CNG. When the RTA proposal was made,unions had asked for a government subsidy similar to what is offered to auto rickshaws for converting to LPG.

Baba Adhav,president of Rickshaw Panchayat said that there had been no word from the RTA or the RTO in the last two months. “We had asked them for a financial subsidy. But we have not heard from the RTA or the RTO yet. The problem is also that the CNG supply is not guaranteed.

The same thing happened with LPG as well; many autorickshaw drivers found LPG fuel difficult to procure,” Adhav said.