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Project Safe Ride: A year on, QR verification covers only one in five three-wheelers
Official Regional Transport Office (RTO) data shows Lucknow has 1.36 lakh registered e-rickshaws and auto-rickshaws, while traffic police records show only 27,741 vehicles have so far been brought under the verification system. This means nearly 1.08 lakh registered vehicles remain outside the initiative.
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Nearly a year after Project Safe Ride was launched to improve commuter safety through QR code-based police verification, only 27,741 of Lucknow’s 1.36 lakh registered auto-rickshaws and e-rickshaws have been covered under the initiative, an HT analysis has found.
Official Regional Transport Office (RTO) data shows Lucknow has 1.36 lakh registered e-rickshaws and auto-rickshaws, while traffic police records show only 27,741 vehicles have so far been brought under the verification system. This means nearly 1.08 lakh registered vehicles remain outside the initiative.
When then DCP (traffic) Kamlesh Dixit, along with joint commissioner of police (law and order) Babloo Kumar, launched Project Safe Ride on July 29, 2025, it was projected as a technology-driven initiative to improve commuter safety, particularly for women. Drivers and vehicle owners were required to register on the Lucknow Police portal, undergo police verification and display a QR code on their vehicles.
By scanning the QR code, passengers could instantly verify the identity of the driver, vehicle owner and other details before boarding.
Police had also announced that from September 1, 2025, three-wheelers without QR codes would not be allowed to ply on city roads and that a strict enforcement drive would follow.
Nearly a year later, however, the rollout remains limited.
Traffic police data shows that only around 16,000 three-wheelers had completed the verification process till June 13. The figure has since risen to 27,741, according to DCP (traffic) Raveena Tyagi.
“Within almost a month, we increased registrations by more than 10,000,” Tyagi told HT, attributing the increase to sustained registration drives across the city.
Despite the recent rise, however, the verification system still covers only around 20% of the city’s registered three-wheeler fleet.
Lucknow’s three-wheeler fleet has witnessed exponential growth over the past decade. RTO records show the city had just 892 registered e-rickshaws in 2015. After e-rickshaws were brought under the Motor Vehicles Act in 2016, registrations increased steadily, with the number of registered e-rickshaws reaching 92,283 by the end of 2025. Including e-autos, the city’s registered three-wheeler fleet now stands at 1.36 lakh.
E-rickshaw operators said the slow progress of Project Safe Ride is not due to reluctance among drivers but because of procedural and technical hurdles.
Mayank Srivastava, president of the E-Rickshaw Chalak Kalyan Samiti, said drivers cannot update or remove their details from the QR system on their own and often have to visit the Safe City office in Lalbagh even for minor corrections.
He claimed that changes in driver details take weeks to reflect on the portal, the Safe City and RTO databases are not synchronised in real time, and the portal frequently fails to generate updated application PDFs after corrections.
Srivastava also claimed that many enforcement personnel continue to ask drivers for printed application forms instead of verifying details through the live QR database. The association has demanded immediate issuance of QR codes for newly registered vehicles, online correction facilities and validity of QR codes for as long as a vehicle’s statutory documents remain valid.
For commuters, the project’s biggest promise was the ability to scan a QR code and instantly verify a driver’s identity before boarding. However, with nearly four out of every five registered e-rickshaws and auto-rickshaws still outside the verification net, that assurance remains unavailable for the majority of rides across Lucknow.
Project at a glance
Launched: July 29, 2025
Objective: Police verification and QR codes for e-rickshaw and auto-rickshaw drivers
Registered e-rickshaws & e-autos (RTO): 1.36 lakh
Verified till June 13, 2026: Around 16,000
Current verified vehicles: 27,741
Coverage: Around 20% (about one in five)
Yet to be covered: Around 1.08 lakh vehicles
