Bargain blues: Passengers arriving at Bhubaneswar railway station haggle with an autorickshaw driver. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, March 4: Passengers landing at the city airport or railway station can look forward to skipping the long wait for a bus or haggling with autorickshaw and taxi drivers.

Pre-paid vehicles are on their way to give you a ride worth your money.

The state transport department has proposed to start pre-paid autorickshaw and taxi services at Bhubaneswar railway station, Biju Patnaik Airport and Badambadi bus terminal in Cuttack by May 15.

A committee comprising officials of transport department, Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police, railways and city airport has been constituted to work out the modalities of the system.

Sources in the state transport department said that according to the plan, the city will be divided into a number of zones and a point-to-point service will be introduced.

While the transport department will fix the price, the police will regulate the service.

Pre-paid ticket counters will, accordingly, be set up at the railway station and airport. Though a privately run pre-paid taxi service already exists in the city airport, it fails to meet the demands as it has only 15 air-conditioned cabs.

The absence of such a facility at the railway station often leads to inconvenience as auto and taxi drivers quote exorbitant fares at night.

“More often than not, one has to argue with the autorickshaw and taxi drivers for a reasonable fare. The buses do not run beyond 11pm and this adds to our woes. Many cities in the country have pre-paid services and there is no reason why a developing city like ours shouldn’t have one,” said Sanjeev Sahu, a passenger from Jajpur.

Regional transport officer of Bhubaneswar Lalmohan Sethy said they were working out the fare structure. “The distance between the railway station and important places of the city will be taken into account before fixing the tariff,” he said.

The police had launched a pre-paid autorickshaw service at Cuttack railway station in October 2011 with more than 200 registered autorickshaws, which had turned out to be a successful venture. The city was divided into 22 zones for smooth operation.

However, police sources said adequate manpower would be required to regulate the pre-paid system in Bhubaneswar, keeping in view the huge rush of passengers to city.

At present, more than 20,000 autorickshaws and 5,000 taxis ply in the city. Every month, around seven lakh passengers depend on the city railway station while another one lakh people use the airport.