25 new share-an-auto routes from Friday

The state transport department will finally start the remaining share-a-rickshaw routes on October 16. The routes were supposed to have started by September 30.

The state transport department will finally start the remaining share-a-rickshaw routes on October 16. The routes were supposed to have started by September 30.

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The decision was taken on October 12, after the state transport minister, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil decided to crack the whip on officers from the regional transport offices (RTOs).

“We will be starting 25 new share-a-rickshaw routes on October 16, which also includes the 13 routes that were supposed to begin by September 30,” said a RTO official on condition of anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Dilip Jadhav, transport commissioner said, “We will also be looking at new share-a-taxi routes. We plan to have 100 such routes.”

The RTOs are consulting the taxi unions to help them identify both legal and illegal share-a-taxi routes in Mumbai. The first new share-a-rickshaw- route will be inaugurated by guardian minister, (suburbs) Naseem Khan at Asalpha on October 16. “We had surveyed this (Asalpha) route and found that a share-a-rickshaw service was required because several offices are located in the area,” said V Pandkar, RTO (East).

The new routes will mainly focus on the east-west connectivity, starting with Andheri (E)-Ghatkopar routes. The routes will also go to Kurla, covering areas like Chirag Nagar, Jari Mari and Saki Naka.

Vikhe-Patil had inaugurated 23 share-a-rickshaw stands on September 29, while 11 more were started two days prior on the western suburbs.

These stands were mainly meant for areas like Chembur, Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Santacruz, Bandra (E) and Mulund. The RTO has decided to take help from the traffic police for manning these stands so that auto rickshaw drivers don’t derail the scheme, like they did at the first share-a-rickshaw stand at Bandra (E) just two days after it was flagged off.