Thiruvananthapuram: The city autorickshaws are finally being painted yellow, a year after conceptualising the idea to weed out illegal three-wheelers from entering the city. The front portion of the autorickshaw will be fully yellow as against the black and yellow colour scheme which existed until now. In the first phase, a batch of over 200 autorickshaws donning new colour was given new permits at Kanakakunnu.
Around 9089 autorickshaws, most of which were plying without permits, will be given permits this month. After this, a second-round permit issuance will be held to add around 25,000 autorickshaws to the city. As per estimates, over 35,000 autorickshaws ply in the city and barring 4,500 the rest are illegal.
After the flag-off of the autorickshaws at Kanakakunnu on Friday, the drivers expressed hope that this will slowly end the disrepute brought by autorickshaws from rural areas. They were often in soup for overcharging and rash behaviour to passengers.
A section of drivers had resisted the colour change pointing out that it is a redundant activity. “Already permit numbers were displayed on autorickshaws for the police to identify illegal vehicles. Hence painting autorickshaw yellow is a redundant activity that will cost up to Rs 3000 for auto drivers,” a driver pointed out. The road transport officials, along with corporation, will now earmark places for the new auto stands.
