Many of Calcutta’s two-stroke autos have adopted a four-step strategy to avoid being caught as the administration makes a feeble attempt to enforce the high court’s ban on polluting three-wheelers.

As the 10-second gas-to-katatel conversion trick reported by The Telegraph on Wednesday proved, brazen ingenuity is the name of the lawless game on the auto-dominated streets of Calcutta. Give them an LPG-only auto and they will make it katatel-compliant, show them an illegal two-stroke auto and they will pass it off as a four-stroke one.

Metro visited a few autorickshaw stands in the city to find out how three-wheelers are going from killer to clean in 10 seconds.

START FROM SCRATCH

Many drivers are employing the easiest method of beating the two-stroke ban — just scratch out the RE 2Stroke/2RE sign. In a few, the word “Stroke” remains but there is no “2” or “4” preceding it. From a distance it looks as if the paint has peeled off.

PAINT PLOY

The ban on two-stroke autos has awakened the painter in many a driver. Several two-stroke autos were spotted with pictures painted in the front or the rear of the autorickshaw, depending on where the three-wheeler’s pedigree was mentioned. “Two-stroke has become a dirty word. So, I have replaced it with a nice pattern. Doesn’t it look good? I did it myself,” said one driver, cheeky in his choice of words but wary of revealing his identity. Less artistic drivers are using a single coat of black paint.

RAKHI AT THE REAR

Posters and stickers of Bollywood hot bods have always adorned autorickshaw hoods. But since January 1, auto operators have been using stickers more to cover than to show. We spotted an auto in Chandni Chowk with a picture of Rakhi Sawant covering the rear plate that mentions its two-stroke identity. A Priyanka Chopra was spotted near Gariahat.

SCRIBBLE SCRABBLE

Auto drivers are adding misspelt words and confusing abbreviations to auto jargon. Some two-stroke autorickshaws on the Park Circus-Ballygunge route have “LPD”, “LPE” and “four stoke” scribbled with chalk on the hood to hoodwink the cops. “We have been told that LPD and LPE are green terms,” said a driver.

Footnote: Hundreds of two-stroke petrol autos plying on the roads are registered with the public vehicles department as four-stroke LPG autos, thanks to the army of touts that line Beltala.