Prepaid auto service soon near 3 Noida metro stations

The fares are being decided by the transport department and will be based on a per-kilometre rate, similar to those in neighbouring cities.

The police and transport departments will start a prepaid auto service from three Metro stations in Noida within a week, in view of the increasing cases of crimes against women by auto drivers reported in the past one week.

The pre-paid auto service will initially be started from the Botanical Garden, Electronic City and Sector 62 Metro stations, according to the police. (Virendra Singh Gosain/HT PHOTO)

The service will initially be started from the Botanical Garden, Electronic City and Sector 62 Metro stations, according to the police. The fares are being decided by the transport department and will be based on a per-kilometre rate, similar to those in neighbouring cities.

“We were getting several complaints from female commuters about being harassed by auto drivers outside Metro stations. Hence, we are trying the new prepaid service, from three stations initially, to ensure commuter safety. These autos will get a parking spot close to the Metro exit and female commuters can chose to use these on priority,” Vaibhav Krishna, senior superintendent of police, said.

He added that the decision on number of prepaid autos at the stations has not been taken yet. Officials said that auto drivers who wish to ply on a prepaid basis will be registered separately and their number will depend on the number of applications received. They added that initially, about 15-20 autos can be expected in the prepaid system at each of the three stations.

Meanwhile, other autos that have not registered with the prepaid system, including shared autos and e-rickshaws, will not get a designated parking spot.

Officials from the transport department said the per-kilometre rates fixed by the state government have not been revised since 2014-15 as most cities do not have metered autos.

“We are consulting with other cities and the existing rates in the state to come up with fares here. The priority will be to ensure safety of commuters when they use these informal modes for last mile travel. We will check all records of prepaid autos and ensure registration with all concerned authorities,” Himesh Tiwary, assistant regional transport officer, said.

The decision was made after several cases of auto drivers robbing commuters and molesting female commuters was reported. Women commuters had informed the police that they were also often harassed by auto drivers while coming out of the Metro stations, as the latter would crowd around the commuters. Two of the three cases reported in the past ten days had taken place after commuters boarded a shared auto from Electronic City Metro station to go towards Ghaziabad.

Meanwhile, a drive against auto drivers was also organised by the traffic police on Monday, during which over 50 auto rickshaws were seized and over 2,000 traffic challans were issued.