Gurugram admin extends deadline for installation of autorickshaw meters by 30 more days: Officials

Gurugram: The Gurugram administration on Thursday extended the deadline for installation of fare meters in all autorickshaws in the district from June 30 to July 30, said officials. Commuters, meanwhile, will have to pay an increased fare.

The district administration, in association with traffic police, Regional Transport Authority (RTA) and Legal Metrology Department (LMD), were expected to start an enforcement drive to fine or impound vehicles plying without meters from July 1 onwards, which has now been postponed to July 31, said officials.

The move came after the drivers’ union urged Gurugram deputy commissioner (DC) Nishant Kumar Yadav to extend the earlier deadline during a meeting held on Thursday, said officials, adding that the “union has vowed to install at least 250-300 autorickshaw meters per day.

“Even if 100 meters are installed daily, a total of 3,000 autorickshaws would be done with the process by the set deadline. An enforcement drive for the same will begin thereafter,” Yadav said, adding that “the authorities aim to install 6,000 autorickshaw meters in the first phase, in a bid to standardise the fare at the earliest.

A memorandum on the demand to increase the autorickshaw fare across the city has been handed over to the RTA, which will be sent to the transport department following an approval, according to officials.

Ravinder Yadav, secretary of RTA, said, “A letter on increasing the autorickshaw fare will soon be sent to senior officials concerned for further action.”

Inspector Deepak Hooda, LMD (weights and measures), said there has been “an increase in the installation of autorickshaw meters, however, the RTA has stopped registering new autorickshaws or renewing fitness certificates of the old ones without meters, leading to a lag in meeting the previous deadline”. “A total of 171 authorickshaw meters were installed in May, and 340 till June 29… As drivers have not been installing the meters willingly, their union needs to act effectively,” Hooda said.

A senior administrative official, meanwhile, said, “At present, autorickshaw drivers charge fares as per their whim. They do not want to install meters… This has to change for the better.”

DC Yadav had fixed June 30 as the deadline for installing autorickshaw meters. Out of the total 15,000 autorickshaws in Gurugram, only 2,000 have meters — many drivers, however, do not use that or are non-functional or their annual certification expired. In Gurugram, an autorickshaw meter costs 1,400, including GST, which was earlier available for around 2,100, according to officials.