No colour if it is not pink,insisted the Chandigarh administration when it had to order luxury auto rickshaws. The insistence paid off and first batch of 10 svelte pink beauties finally took to the citys roads last week. They came with a fancy name too: Tuk-Tuk. The bubblegum pink Tuk Tuks are part of Chandigarhs first dial-an-auto service and passengers are welcomed on board with free newspapers and a bottle of mineral watereverything to make them look forward to the ride. The autos also sport a state-of-the-art global positioning system. The autos were launched in Chandigarh last week,more than a month after the official launch and two companies,Indus Travels and Tricity,have initially been allotted the license to run the service. What makes the Tuk-Tuks even more appealing is that they are the first to have women drivers. Like Alka Thapa,26,who negotiates Chandigarhs roundabouts with ease. There are two women in a total fleet of 10 drivers. We have fixed hours and work in shifts. Our company is hiring more women drivers. I guess a woman passenger would feel more secure while travelling in the company of a woman driver, says Thapa who works with Tricity. She points to the GPS in her auto,explaining that it is linked to companys control centre,which allows them to track the rickshaw. This is especially important for young girls who work late. In fact,the day these Tuk-Tuks were launched,we got calls from parents who asked if they could hire our service on a monthly basis,to drop and pick up their daughters from their colleges,schools and offices, she says. Thapa says all 10 Tuk-Tuks were booked the very day they were launched. The administration hopes the Tuk-Tuks will fill the gap between air-conditioned radio cabs and local buses. Some people find the price of radio cabs too steep. So we started this radio auto service,which is unique in India. At Rs 8 a kilometre,it is an economical service, says Vandana Disodia,Secretary,State Transport Authority,of the pink stunners. The pink autos roll out of the Bajaj Auto factory in Pune. The company was shocked when we placed an order for pink autos. In fact,they didnt paint the first consignment of 10 autos. We got the machines and painted them on our own. But now,they have agreed to paint them pink, says Colonel (retired) V.S. Dhillon of Tricity,the owner of the first 10 Tuk-Tuks. He plans to expand his fleet to 100 and so does Harpreet Cheema of Indus Travels,whose Tuk-Tuks will be launched on October 15. The Tuk-Tuks may be a first for India but the name has been borrowed from East Asia. Tuk-Tuk is a name given to autos in Malaysia and Singapore. In fact,when we launch officially,our autos will be pink,which is now a mandatory requirement of the administration,but we wont call them Tuk-Tuk, says Cheema.
