"Under the rules, the registration window is 90 days. But since these rickshaws are illegal, they could be scrapped after seven days," said a transport official on Friday. "Before handing over the impounded e-rickshaws to a registered vehicle scrapping facility, they will be crushed."
The transport department has given a fresh push to booking illegally operating e-rickshaws. This month, till Aug 21, the department impounded 1,077 e-rickshaws, meaning over 50 of them seized every day.
The decision was taken after a high-level review meeting chaired by the lieutenant governor as a means to decongesting the city. According to estimates, there are 1.2 lakh registered e-rickshaws in the city. However, the actual number of e-rickshaws on the ground is perhaps twice that figure, necessitating a check on their illegal proliferation. "Because the unregistered e-rickshaws do not have number plates and so cannot be challaned online, they flout all traffic restrictions and often ply on roads where they are not permitted, thereby slowing down traffic and causing congestion," said the official.
The transport department recently set up an exclusive pit for impounded e-rickshaws at Burari in north Delhi, but there is a big need for more vacant land to build additional impounding pits due to the overwhelming number of road violations by these vehicles. There are three pits where the impounded e-rickshaw are sent — in Burari, Sarai Kale Khan and Dwarka. If this was not enough, the transport department has also flagged the urgent need for space to park seized four wheelers.
One of the cheapest means of commuting, e-rickshaws started plying on city roads in 2012 and soon spiralled across the city as they bridged the last-mile gap at pocket-friendly rates. And soon enough, they also became a major nuisance for road users due to their unchecked growth and cavalier attitude to traffic regulations.
According to the transport official, the major complaints against e-rickshaws are clustering on the road leading to traffic jams and long tailbacks, improper parking, violation of restrictions on road use, one-way violations, overloading passengers and underage driving.
Besides this, many of these illegal rickshaws are largely engaged in illegal charging through direct theft of electricity. Their use of sub-standard batteries also poses significant safety hazards. This week, a seven-year-old boy was electrocuted to death after he came in contact with a live wire at an illegal e-rickshaw charging point near a public toilet in northwest Delhi's Shalimar Bagh.
Senior officials in Delhi govt said that the first thing that was needed to be done to control the menace of these vehicles was to allow only rickshaws that were registered to operate on the roads. This would enable monitoring as well as the enforcement of regulations.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
