CUMTA to regulate share autos

CHENNAI: With paratransit modes (share autos) remaining the second most popular mode of public transportation in Chennai after Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) in terms of the number of commuters, the state government has taken measures to regulate and recognise them.

The Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) has proposed preparing a plan to make them an integral part of public transportation to reduce the dependency on private vehicles.

A CUMTA official said the intermediate transportation plan will be prepared with the assistance of the World Bank under the Chennai City Partnership Programme. Under the plan, the operation of share autos will be regulated in such a way that they provide last-mile connectivity and connection to unserved areas by MTC buses.

Moreover, the share autos, instead of complementing the MTC operations, will compete with buses. Most of the share autos in the city are running on the MTC routes thus reducing the MTC’s income. Commuters also prefer to share autos instead of buses to avoid excessive crowds in the buses and to reach their destination faster.

Under the intermediate transportation plan, the CUMTA will propose to shift the share autos to the areas where buses cannot be operated and may fix charges.

Research done by the Centre of Public Policy Research (CPR) in 2013 revealed that more than 18 lakh commuters use share autos every day which is second to MTC’s ridership. As the city has less than 3,500 MTC buses, the research estimated 12,000 share autos plying across the city making more than 2.50 lakh trips daily. The study also pointed out that the share autos cover a total distance of 16.20 lakh kilometres every day.

Moreover, 65 per cent of the commuters using share autos use the mode every day. Around 87 per cent use them to reach their final destination while remaining commuters use share autos to reach other modes of transportation. The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) is already running share autos, with thousands of commuters using them every month.

“During the night hours, the frequency of MTC buses is insufficient from the Koyambedu bus stand. Due to this, several passengers use readily available share autos. During the day time also, we don’t have to wait for MTC buses to go to work,” M Mohan, a regular user said.