Ranchi: Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has begun the process of issuing fresh route permits to as many as 1,131 e-rickshaws across five zones through lottery and clarified that this time the permits would be valid for a year.

On Monday, around 400 route permits were issued through a lottery held at Nigam Park at Morabadi for the five zones of Booty More, Main Road, Hamru, Namkum and Dhurwa.

For Booty More, 211 e-rickshaws would get permits, while Main Road would have the highest number of e-rickshaw permits at 473. For the remaining three zones, Harmu would have 380 permits, Namkum 218 and Dhurwa 185.

In February, RMC had issued route permits to 600 e-rickshaws with a six-month validity, but the system collapsed due to poor monitoring.

"The number of registered e-rickshaws has increased in Ranchi. Unauthorised e-rickshaws not registered with RMC will not be allowed to operate," said RMC assistant executive officer Ram Krishna Kumar.

On Monday, e-rickshaw owners who were given route permits were asked to sign an undertaking that they would not deviate from their designated routes. "Or else a penalty will be imposed," Kumar clarified, adding that regulations regarding routes were imperative to ensure smooth flow of traffic.

A penalty of Rs 3,000 would be imposed on the first route permit violation. Second and third violations would attract penalties of Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively. In case of four violations, the route permit as well as the registration of the e-rickshaw would be cancelled, Kumar emphasised.

The success of the route permit system would depend upon how effectively RMC is able to implement it across the capital at a time when the rising number of e-rickshaws sis being blamed for regular snarls.

Senior traffic police officials in Ranchi, however, reserved their judgement on whether the route permit system would work.

"For route violations only RMC is authorised to impose fines. But the traffic department is always blamed when there are issues. During a month-long drive, we seized as many as 60 e-rickshaws running without proper documents," said a senior traffic police official.