An autorickshaw without the number plate in Tollygunge. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Autorickshaws in Calcutta are above the law. Their drivers can park anywhere they want, use adulterated fuel, violate traffic rules and even drive around without registration numbers.

Poltu, who ferries passengers between Tollygunge and Kudghat, said: “When things are working out fine without getting registered, why should we take so much tension? If there is a raid any day, the union comes to our rescue.”

Tollygunge, which Metro surveyed on Tuesday, typifies the state of autorickshaw-orchestrated lawlessness on the road. Of the 3,000-odd autorickshaws that ply to four destinations — Garia, Kudghat, Jadavpur and Behala — from the vicinity of Tollygunge Metro station, almost 800 do not have route permits.

“Some do not even have registration numbers,” said a senior official of the motor vehicles department of South 24-Parganas. “Many operate only with the TCR number (temporary number that comes with a new vehicle). But they continue to ply because they have the support of the union. If our inspectors impound vehicles, the union puts pressure and we have to let the autos go after a nominal fine.”

Poltu is not the owner of the numberless autorickshaw he drives. The person who owns it has an understanding with the union that his three-wheeler would do three eight-hour shifts every day. The earnings from one shift would go to him and that from the other two to the drivers chosen by the union.

The rules aren’t any different elsewhere in the city. A red board, hidden from public view, hangs between the branches of a roadside tree near Zeeshan restaurant in Park Circus. It says the space is reserved for autorickshaws plying between Park Circus and Bosepukur. But the stand is used by autorickshaws of various other routes like Gol Park, Gariahat station and Tagore Park. More than 150 autorickshaws ply from there.

“The route is for 50 autorickshaws from Park Circus to Bosepukur. But no autorickshaw goes to Bosepukur because there is no stand there,” said Laxmikant De, who drives one of the 45 autos that ply between Park Circus and Gol Park.