Auto Rickshaws

Auto rickshaws

I have been in Vizag since the time Rickshaws were moved on human pedal power. We bargained in fractions of a rupee and having sealed the deal we clambered – four into the rickshaw and perched our posteriors precariously on the contraption as it crawled (or whizzed) depending on the topography of the area, to our destination. The rickshaw man sweated and strained, alighting from the seat many times to pull the rickshaw. Some passengers, moved by his efforts, would get off and give the man a hand. (No, they did not walk alongside clapping – they pushed). It was terrible labour and due to Vizag’s steep slopes and extreme weather the job was made even more difficult.

Auto rickshaw pullers were a tough breed with sinuous legs and weather beaten faces. They smoked Chuttas and abused most colorfully. They labored all day, brawled all evening over bottles of arrack. And after a frugal meal they slept deeply, curled up on their rickshaw seats. Late at night, below the dim street light, one could see a line of parked rickshaws with shadowy figures in shorts and vests, all akimbo on the seats. That mode of human powered transport has now pedalled away into the misty past.

Today much of urban India still moves on 3 wheels but these are run with engines. These vehicles were initially designed for a driver and 3 passengers. But with fuel prices rising, auto rickshaw drivers started taking on more and more passengers. Now you regularly see 10 people crammed into one auto. Children going to school also packed tightly into the auto, their bags hanging outside the vehicle like some travelling merchant’s cart. The other day, when wading in the sea, I heard one sardine saying to the other – “there goes a can of humans!” Yes, I picked up Sardines when I was in Sardinia.

Now, the auto rickshaw driver is the undisputed king of the road. He goes to a special Auto Rickshaw School (of) Excellence (you figure out the abbreviation). Here he is taught to focus – Zen like – on the sole purpose of snaring a passenger. An advanced miniature radar system is inserted into his temporal lobe which helps him locate target passengers in nano seconds. Then, a sophisticated miniature computer tells him the best way to a) cut off that competing auto by taking 90 degree turns without warning b) trap their customer into getting into their vehicle and c) ensuring that he has the best chances of picking up most passengers at one shot. Several of these auto rickshaws move in an “Auto-Bot” formation, blocking off the entire width of a road as they jockey for passengers. This is much to the chagrin of the APSRTC bus driver who takes revenge on the entire neighborhood by falling upon their “air horn” and trying to blast his way through with sheer sound power.

Seriously, the auto rickshaw must be hailed as a vehicle that revolutionized the transport industry and brought the per capita cost of mobility down. Imagine paying Rs. 6 from RTC to Jagadamba!  At the same time this is probably the vehicle most responsible for injecting chaos into the most crowded parts of our city. I am told that our city has 15,000 Auto Rickshaws plying here. And that these 15,000 auto drivers are impervious to the local laws. They do not need to have meters. They are unionized and politicized and nothing can change their ways.

I find this difficult to believe. In Mumbai, a city notorious for unions and powerful local dons, auto rickshaws are quite disciplined, they do not overload and their meters are always used and they charge the right fare scrupulously. If Auto rickshaws can be regulated in Mumbai, why cannot they be controlled in Vizag? A disciplined auto rickshaw force will bring down the stress not only for the auto drivers but for other road users as well. The city planners, the Road Transport Authorities and the police will need to work together to streamline this mode of transport. This sector is wide open for improvement and a modern city like ours must do everything it can to set it right.