Unauthorised e-rickshaws — popularly known as totos — will have to register with the transport government and collect a temporary toto enrolment number (TTEN), the state government has decided.
Moreover, the old vehicles will have to be replaced with new authorised e-rickshaws within two years.
Releasing a policy guideline on the movement and regulation of totos, on Friday, transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty said that by enrolling unauthorised e-rickshaws, the government wanted to bring these vehicles within a legal framework and ensure that they become authorised entities that can ply on roads.
A majority of the e-rickshaws plying in and around Calcutta are unregistered, transport department officials said.
The government has taken several measures in the past, including banning the movement of unauthorised e-rickshaws on main thoroughfares, but none of them worked.
The government to date has no clue about the number of such unauthorised e-rickshaws that are on the road.
“Once this policy guideline is implemented, the traffic management challenges posed by these totos will be significantly reduced,” minister Chakraborty said.
The new policy states that civic bodies will assist the officers of the transport department in enumerating and enrolling unauthorised e-rickshaws. The enrolment process will have to be completed by November 30.
“After the enrolment, unauthorised e-rickshaw owners will have to pay ₹1,000 as an authorisation fee. This will remain valid for six months. After that, the owner will have to pay ₹100 to keep the temporary enrolment number valid,” a transport department officer said.
Once unauthorised e-rickshaws have been given an enrolment number, the owners will be provided with a QR code containing name, address, area, route and other details.
The details will be uploaded to a specific portal, created for such vehicles.
Senior officers said the portal will help monitor whether new unauthorised vehicles are plying on the roads or not.
“Simultaneously, the police will issue notices to assemblers of unauthorised e-rickshaws in Calcutta and its adjoining areas apart from those in the districts asking them to shut down,” the officer said.
“If these units don’t shut down, FIRs will be drawn up against them, and the units will be sealed,” he said.