Bengaluru: With a request to ride the autorickshaw falling after the Covid-19 setting was beaten and working-from-house began, there were very few takers for new automatic permissions in the city.
In 2018-19, the Department of Transportation decided to issue 30,000 new automatic permits in Bengaluru in 2023.
These include 24,500 for LPG / CNG Autos, 5,000 for electricity, and 500 for pink autos.
However, the department only published 10,000 permits so far.
There are also no takers for pink autos.
“Every year, we should spend 5,000 permissions.
We plan to spend 15,000 permits now, but only 10,000 have been given because of low demand,” said VK Moosa, regional transportation officers (autorickshaws), Shantinagar.
Many autorickshaw drivers say there is no business after covid.
“When the automatic driver is struggling to pay the emis, why will the new driver get permission? Many investors also do not provide loans for new cars.
If they give permission to more automatic drivers, it will affect the existing driver,” said K Manjunath , a driver.
This center has stated that the commercial transportation license (yellow badge) is not a prerequisite for driving a light motorized vehicle.
However, the state has not issued a notification.
“This center states that the yellow badge is not mandatory, but the Karnataka transportation department still insists.
This is one reason many drivers do not apply for permission,” said Ramesh Kumar, other automatic drivers of plying in Indiranagar.
Getting a yellow badge is a time-consuming process.
The driver can only apply one year after getting a license to encourage commercial vehicles.
“If there are no takers for new permits, they can arrange illegal autos or provide several permissions to existing drivers,” Kumar added.
The department of transportation recently said about 35,000 illegal authoric was plying on the streets of the city.
Officials said they would issue an autorickshaw permit to those who were permanent residents of Bengaluru and had a commercial transportation license.
The applicant will be allocated one permission only and he should not have another autorickshaw permission.
The permit fee will be the RS 500.
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, in 2017, announced the autorickshaw scheme driven by a woman.
However, not one automatic pink has hit Jalan Bengaluru so far.
Civic’s body has announced the subsidy of RS 80,000 per pink auto for women available permission.
Auto Pink 500 will be equipped with a GPS camera and CCTV.
However, strict conditions such as transporting only women and children, solid roads, and very few women who have a commercial license produce a bad response.