Now, pay by meter for autos in Jaipur

Autos in Jaipur will run by meter as traffic police geared up to seize autorickshaws if they are found running without meters from Monday(31st Oct.) in Pink City Jaipur. The traffic police had asked all the autos to run as per meters from October 1 by issuing a notification. The notification had set Rs 13 fare for the first kilometre and Rs 8 per km subsequently. The unions of autorickshaws had demanded traffic police and transport department to give them five months to repair around 6,000 autos in which meters are defunct. The city has 12,000 autos as per registered by the regional transport office (RTO).
However, the police gave them three weeks time to repair meters and asked them to charge fare as per meter from October 27. Meantime, nearly 1,000 drivers could get their meters repaired while 5,000 have yet to install. The primary reason of this failure was severe dearth of repair shops, which can install meters.   "The government has authorised only one shop situated on MI road to repair meters. Thus, meters could be repaired only in 800 to 1000 autos in the given deadline while 5,000 autos have still to cope with defunct meters," said Amar Singh, president of the Pink City Auto Rickshaw Union.