The Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) has proposed a plan to regulate share autos and increase their usage.
What’s it about? Share autos are the second-most popular mode of public transportation in the city. The CUMTA wants to regulate them and make them an integral part of public transportation to reduce dependency on private transport. The plan is to deploy them strategically in areas where buses can’t operate to offer commuters an option.
- The plan is to regulate and deploy them for last-mile connectivity in places unserved by MTC buses. Most share autos compete with buses and contribute to reduced MTC income.
- A 2013 study from the Centre of Public Policy Research (CPR) showed more than 18 lakh people use share autos daily. 65% of people who use share autos do so every day.
Statistics: The city has less than 3,500 MTC buses and about 12,000 share autos, making more than 2.5 lakh trips daily. Share autos cover a total distance of 16.20 lakh km every day.
(Image credits: Adityamadhav83, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
