As the number of autos in the city has increased, there has been no regulation on fares, affecting residents.
What’s it about? When the pandemic set in, many auto drivers were unemployed, and some took up other jobs. More than two years later, there were more than 8,300 new autos in the city last year. The number of autos in the city has crossed 1 lakh. This hasn’t resulted in a decrease in fares due to no regulatory mechanism.
- Auto drivers charge exorbitant fares and often make ₹2,000 a day. Many politicians, the police, and civic officials have rented their own autos to drivers for a second source of income.
- The arrival of cab aggregators like Ola and Uber was perceived as a threat to autos. Then, some auto drivers began working with these companies and soon demanded a cut above the actual fare.
Who said what? Transportation activist S Kamal said commuters are at the mercy of drivers since no one uses the metre. S Balasubramanian from the CITU auto drivers’ union suggested the government have a dynamic pricing system like in Kerala and launch its own app to register all drivers.