GB Nagar: Over 100 owners penalised for not installing meters in autos

The transport department penalised over 100 autorickshaw owners across Gautam Budh Nagar in the past two days for not installing a meter in their vehicles despite several warnings

The transport department penalised over 100 autorickshaw owners across Gautam Budh Nagar in the past two days for not installing a meter in their vehicles despite several warnings.

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Last month, the transport department mandated that autorickshaws in the district must have meters and asked owners to install them within two weeks. However, they did not initiate action against errant owners earlier because there are about 17,500 autos in Gautam Budh Nagar and the installation was taking time.

“We gave autorickshaw owners enough time to install meters and initiated action much after the deadline. However, many are still hesitant to do so. The initiation of penalty will motivate others to follow the rules now and install meters at the earliest,” Prashant Tiwary, additional regional transport officer, said.

He added that the penalty is ₹500 and the department has so far collected over ₹50,000.

Meanwhile, auto drivers said that the action is unfair as it is impossible for the sole authorised centre in Sector 53 to install meters in all autos within a month.

“We have already asked the department to give us more time as only about 20 autos can get meters installed in a day, while there are 17,500 autos in the entire district. All auto drivers have been informed and they are trying to comply, but it will take time,” said Lal Babu, president, Noida Autorickshaw Drivers’ Association.

According to officials, autos are supposed to charge passengers according to the meter-- ₹25 as the minimum fare for upto two kilometres, after which ₹8 per kilometre is to be charged and ₹1 per minute as waiting charge. However, the auto union has been demanding an increase in the rates as the CNG prices have shot up to more than double since these rates were fixed in 2015. However, no decision has been taken in this regard yet.