Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, March 22: The state transport department and commissionerate police Sunday rolled out the pre-paid auto-rickshaw service at the Master Canteen side of the railway station, Baramunda bus stand and KIIT University, in a move that aims to bring relief to consumers from the harassment by auto-rickshaw drivers because of unregulated fares.
The fares have been fixed by a technical committee comprising officials of the regional transport office (RTO), commissionerate police, transport and commerce department and auto-rickshaw unions.
Commuters will have to pay Rs 30 for the first 2 km and Rs 10 for every subsequent kilometre between 5 am and 10 pm, according to the fare chart that has been chalked out. At night, between 10 pm and 5 am, commuters will have to pay Rs 50 for the first 2 km and Rs 10 for every subsequent km. The commuters will have to pay an additional 30 per cent of the fare as night charges.
For a 3 km journey, the fare during the day would be Rs 40. At night, the base fare would be Rs 60 on which the commuter would have to pay an additional Rs18, taking the total fare to Rs 78.
There will be 130 auto-rickshaws at Master Canteen, 100 at Baramunda bus stand and 70 at KIIT, according to the general secretary of the Rajdhani Auto Mahasangha, Pradyumna Samal.
“We hope a toll free helpline number for bookings and lodging grievances would soon be introduced,” he said.
Several auto-rickshaw unions claimed that their demand of a pre-paid service in the city has been fulfilled by the government after 10 years.
State tourism and culture minister Ashok Panda unveiled the prepaid service in the presence of director general of police Sanjeev Marik, police commissioner RP Sharma, regional transport officer Lal Mohan Sethi and representatives of auto-rickshaw associations.