A massive exercise, to revise tariffs for nearly 1,500 destinations and to set right the anomalies that plague the prepaid autorickshaw fare system in the city, is in progress and is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
The City traffic police are taking up the exercise with the help of a committee comprising officials from the Legal Metrology and Regional Transport Departments and representatives of autorickshaw drivers’ trade unions.
An earlier fare revision, completed after a tough effort with policemen travelling to several destinations to verify the distance and fares, was met with resistance from the trade unions since the police had slashed some of the existing rates. This prompted the setting up of a committee, involving Legal Metrology and RTO officials and trade unions, so that the results would not be contentious, a senior police official said.
To end fleecing
There are five prepaid autorickshaw counters in the city — at the Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station, Thampanoor KSRTC terminal, near Gandhi Park, Pettah railway station and the medical college. The system is one of the most popular modes of public transport in the city with at least 5,000 people using these every day. A major reason for people reaching these five destinations, some of them the main entry points to the city, depending on prepaid autorickshaws was that they were somewhat free of the unscrupulous fleecing of passengers by drivers.
However, there were anomalies with some fares being not ‘fair,’ like a trip to the Vyduthi Bhavan from Thampanoor costing Rs.50 whereas a trip to Pattom Junction, a shorter distance, would cost Rs.55. And then, there was the extra charge levied by drivers. For instance, the charge from Pettah railway station to West Fort was around Rs.30, but if the passenger asked the driver to drop him/her a little ahead, even if it was less than 100m, he/she would be charged up to an additional Rs.15.
Then there were technical issues, like the fare from the Thampanoor railway station to the Secretariat being mistakenly entered in the computer system as Rs.450.
“All such anomalies are being rectified,” M.R. Satheesh Kumar, Circle Inspector, Traffic (South) said.
