There has been a huge increase in the number of autorickshaws plying illegally in the city. The road traffic authority has authorised 5,000 new autorickshaws to join the fleet of 73,537 authorised autorickshaws in the city. But an additional 30,000 unauthorised autorickshaws have been plying on city roads in the last one month, especially from Ranga Reddy district. City traffic police has booked 7,000 cases over the last four days in a special drive to detect illegal vehicles and has started seizing the vehicles.

The city traffic police had allowed autorickshaws from outside the city to ply on city roads even without relevant permits during the recent 40-day strike called by pro-Telangana outfits, as the RTA was not issuing any permits then. However, even after the strike came to an end, autorickshaws have been intruding into city limits, many of them as far as Abids and Koti. “There was a sudden explosion of traffic on the roads about a month ago and roads which were navigable became choked with traffic. It was noticed that traffic was not moving from junction to junction, which was not the case earlier. We need to first drive these illegally plying autorickshaws out of the city to control the situation,” said ACP traffic C.V. Anand. Not only do these autorickshaws not have a permit to ply on the city’s roads, but at least 60 per cent of the drivers do not have driving licences.