The state government’s decision to promote e-rickshaws as an important source of entrepreneurship for the city’s youth post Covid has turned out to be a major concern for the transport department and the traffic wing of Jaipur police department.
After CM Ashok Gehlot announced the subsidy scheme for purchasing e-rickshaws in July 2021, the number of e-rickshaws had increased manifold over the next one-and-a-half years. The menace increased so much that the transport department is now planning out ways to restrict the movements of e-rickshaws in the city.
“In June 2021, the government approved the scheme to provide subsidy on e-rickshaws to help unemployed youths become self-dependent following the economic crisis post Covid. It seems the decision has proved to be a major hindrance for the city’s transport system. Around 18,000 new e-rickshaws got registered in the next one-and-a-half months,” said a senior official of the transport department.
At present, there are a little over 30,000 e-rickshaws registered with Jaipur RTO. Among which 27,000 ply regularly on city roads. Officials of the traffic department said the problem got accelerated because a single e-rickshaw is rented out to so many drivers that it becomes an uphill task to identify the real owner. In fact, the number of e-rickshaws on city roads has proved to be a challenging task to issue challans.
“The easiest way is to seize the e-rickshaws. But, even if you seize the vehicle, no one will turn up to claim it. May be because the owners have several e-rickshaws,” said a traffic official, adding, “We regularly issue challans. But there are just too many e-rickshaws around Walled City. Unless there are proper rules to govern e-rickshaws, the problem will continue to plague the city.”
Members of the e-rickshaw associations said following the government’s announcement, owners were getting a subsidy of around Rs 22,000 and this scheme has proved to be a major hit among the local youths. But, now, the government has suddenly become ‘unnecessarily’ strict on the e-rickshaw business creating unnecessary policies to harass the e-rickshaw stakeholders.
For a growing city like Jaipur, an urban mobility policy is crucial to keep abalance between various modes of transportation that takes into consideration affordability and comfort while keeping the roads less congested. The policy should be framed after studying the views of all stakeholders such as the transport department, various types of operators, traffic police and civic bodies and strike a balance to ensure smooth functioning of the urban transport system withcitizens as its focus.
“In September 2021, the government suddenly issued a notification and withdrew the subsidy policy. Even in its policy the government made it mandatory to use Lithium batteries instead of LED Acid batteries. There are hardly any manufactures of Lithium Batteries in the state and the cost of these batteries are very high. It’s a ploy to destroy the trade,” said Narendrapal Singh, the president of E-rickshaw Welfare Association, who is also a e-rickshaw dealer.
