Bhubaneswar, Oct. 12: The failure of the authorities concerned to provide proper parking bays to autorickshaws has created traffic chaos in the city. Reckless driving by auto drivers is adding to the woes of commuters.
For a long time, the Rajdhani Auto Rickshaw Mahasangh has been demanding proper parking bays for autos. The Mahasangh had even agitated five times over this issue.
“On a numbers of occasions, we have held discussions with the authorities, but they have failed to fulfil our demands. Without proper parking bays, parking lots come up at random and traffic is becoming more chaotic as a result,” said Naba Kishore Mohanty, president of Rajdhani Auto Rickshaw Mahasangh.
He said the association had identified 130 places for parking in the city and presented a memorandum to the authorities concerned. But without infrastructure, the association could do little to streamline the transport service, he added.
The commuters are the worst sufferers, as errant autorickshaw drivers park their vehicles at random spots. During peak hours, commuters are hard pressed to stay out of the way of the autos. “Autorickshaws drivers park their vehicles at will and sometimes they occupy the roadsides, making it difficult for us to navigate the roads,” said Anirudha Rout, a student.
Reckless driving by autorickshaw drivers has resulted in a number of minor accidents. “Wherever the autorickshaw drivers find passengers, they stop without even looking back, which increases the chances of accidents,” said Jyoti Krushna Dhal, a businessman.
Autorickshaw drivers, however, protested when they heard of the complaints against them.
“It’s the passengers who get off autos at will and at the same time they expect autorickshaws to pick up them from any place,” said Bairagi Jena, an auto driver. He also criticised the authorities, as he alleged they had never tried to identify spots at which passengers would get off from or get into an auto. City bus service employees and autorickshaw drivers have been involved in several minor scuffles to pick up passengers.
“The city bus service has taken a toll on our business. It is natural that we have to try very hard to pick up passengers,” said Ratikanta Behera, another autorickshaw driver.
The traffic department, on the other hand, claimed they were taking action against the errant drivers. “Sometimes we conduct drives to penalise the errant drivers,” said a senior police officer of the traffic department. He also said the government should discontinue further autorickshaw registrations, as the number of autos had increased significantly over the last two years.
As far as reckless driving is concerned, residents allege that the Regional Transport Office (RTO) was providing licences to autorickshaw drivers without verifying their credentials. “One comes across so many young drivers who do not have any knowledge of traffic rules and driving. This raises the chances of accidents,” said Suresh Mohapatra, a government official.
RTO authorities, however, denied the charge.
“Licenses are given following government rules. The question of irregularities does not arise,” said regional transport officer Lal Mohan Sethy. He added that in the future, the RTO would carry out an awareness drive to sensitise autorickshaw drivers.
According to city mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, the authorities have identified parking spots for autorickshaws. “We have concluded a joint inspection with the help of the traffic department and have forwarded a letter to the general administration department for further action,” he said.
At present, there are nearly 18,000 autorickshaws plying city roads and more than 1 lakh commuters depend upon autorickshaws for transport.
