Nagpur Six seater autorickshaws from other districts ply unchecked

NAGPUR TOI News : RTO and traffic police department are turning a blind eye toward six-seater autorickshaws of neighbouring districts like Yavatmal, Bhandara and Gondia plying illegally inside city limits.

 As a result, there's been chaos at many busy junctions, affecting the business of three-wheeler autorickshaws which are supposed to run in city.

These illegal passenger vehicles ply unchecked on Central Avenue, Gandhi Sagar Lake road, Great Nag road and Kamptee road.

Three-wheeler autorickshaw drivers have submitted memorandums to both deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Jivaraj Dabhade and RTO (city) Sarjerao Shelke several times seeking stern action against illegal six-seater autorickshaws and demanded a complete ban on these vehicles in city limits. But both authorities have failed to take any action.

On Saturday, TOI found that apart from vehicles registered at Nagpur RTO (MH31), vehicles with registration number MH26 (Nanded), MH27 (Amravati), MH28 (Buldana), MH29 (Yavatmal), MH30 (Akola), MH32 (Wardha), MH33 (Gadchiroli), MH34 (Chandrapur), MH35 (Gondia), MH36 (Bhandara), MH37 (Washim) ply freely inside city limits.

There are around 25,000 autorickshaws on city roads, of which only 11,000 are permit holders. There are 3,000 six-seater autorickshaws in corporation limits even though they have no permit to ply on city roads. Despite high court directives, they continue to ply in the city.

Sitabuldi is their hub from which they ply on different routes like Pardi, Hudkeshwar, Hingna, Dighori, Manewada, Koradi, Kamptee and Defence-Wadi. Similarly, around 500 Tata Magic vans have started operating from within city limits, the auto union members complained.

These six-seater autos have created havoc on the road between Variety Square and Eighth Mile. ""Illegally overcrowded autos come from Athawa Mile. They pick up passengers from Nagpur University campus, Bharat Nagar, Ravi Nagar, Law College, Bole Petrol Pump, Maharajbagh and Cinemax while traffic cops turn a blind eye,"" pointed out an autorickshaw driver.

However, traffic police officials claimed that they regularly takes action against such vehicles. Citing an example, they said that in this year till October 31, they have penalised 546 autorickshaws plying without permit. But they admitted that despite this they continue to ply in city limits.