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Two-wheeler rental services mushroom all over Puducherry

Photo: T. Singaravelou

Helping tourists: Two-wheeler rental outlets are springing up all over Puducherry. —

PUDUCHERRY: Heritage structures, boulevards, boards with French street names, people on cycles – a recent addition to this list of things dotting Puducherry’s landscape are boards that scream ‘Two-wheeler rentals.’

“Even five years ago, there were only around 10 rentals all over town. Now there may be over 75, with many more coming up,” claims Baskar, owner of a rental on Mission Street. The reason for this is that tourists prefer to explore Puducherry on their own, he says.

Ranjith, a tourist equipped with a road map, agrees. “I can go wherever I want to on a bike, without worrying about the time. I don’t know Tamil. So haggling with auto-rickshaw drivers is also tough. A two-wheeler is ideal.”

Baskar’s rental has 10 vehicles, both geared and non-geared. They only have to pay between Rs. 100 and Rs. 125 to rent a two-wheeler for a day. During tourist season, all his vehicles are rented every day and he makes over Rs. 1,000 a day.

But it is when the foreign tourists come in July that there is more demand for two-wheelers, he says.

“We insist on a driving licence and withhold the original before giving them the vehicle,” says Raja, owner of another rental. But there really is no guarantee that customers will return the vehicle.

Raja has over 50 driving licences from India, France and the U.S., college ID cards and even credit cards of people who either stole the vehicle or abandoned it somewhere. “Many of the addresses on these are wrong.

I have lost many vehicles. Still, it is a lucrative business. After all, which business does not involve risks,” Raja asks.

“We have applied to Road Transport Office for licences to run these rentals, but haven’t gotten them yet,” adds Raja.

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