An autorickshaw rally in Bhubaneswar against the hike in diesel price. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 18: Get ready to dole out more for autorickshaw rides from next month. After the hike in city bus fares, it is now the turn of autorickshaws.

The All Odisha Auto Chalak Mahasangha, an association of autorickshaw operators, today threatened to increase auto fares if the Union government did not roll back the decision of hiking the diesel rate.

The association members alleged that although diesel and petrol prices had increased frequently, the state government had never thought of revising the fares.

“The last time the fare revision was done by the state government was in June 2008. But since then the prices of petrol and diesel have been hiked nearly 10 times. Whenever the prices have gone up we have approached the state government to revise the fare structures, but every time they have turned a deaf ear. So, if the hike in diesel price is not rolled back we will be forced to hike passenger fares next month,” said general secretary of the association Padman Kumar Samal.

The association members said that without the state government’s involvement in preparing fare structures for autorickshaws, they would be forced to revise the fares on their own. The members also made it clear that the fares would be hiked by Re 1 from one destination to another.

For example, a passenger travelling from Vani Vihar Square to Rajmahal Square will have to pay Rs 9 instead of the current Rs 8 if fares are hiked next month.

Sources said more than 77,000 autorickshaws ply the state with more than 70,000 being run on diesel. Nearly 24,000 autorickshaws ply the city, of which only 500 run on petrol while the rest use diesel. “We have been incurring huge losses because of frequent diesel price hikes. In the past seven days, a single autorickshaw operator has made a loss of Rs 100 per day. We demand that the state government cut down the value added tax on diesel so that diesel prices come down,” said Samal.

Passengers, especially students, apprehend tough times ahead as even city bus fares have been hiked recently.

“There are city buses, but even then it is common to take autorickshaws to reach our institutes. Any hike in autorickshaw fares will definitely affect us,” said Mukesh Baral, a student of a private engineering college.

The revised city bus fares were enforced on September 15. The fares were increased by Re 1 for destinations within 0-12km while the maximum fare went up to Rs 37 from Rs 32.