After buses, Metro turns to rickshaws

BANGALORE: If you are looking for connectivity to Metro, you may also look to autos. After a tie-up with BMTC buses, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) is planning a tie-up with autorickshaw drivers to create multi-modal transport system.
Talks have been held with one auto union so far and a proposal has come out of the talks. Other unions will perhaps be approached or will join the discussion to evolve an acceptable consensus among all unions and between unions and BMRC.
HG Srinivasa Murthy, vice-president of Federation of Karnataka State Autorickshaw Drivers’ Unions, said they met BMRC managing director N Sivasailam on Saturday to discuss the modalities.
“The BMRC MD had invited us to work on strategies to develop a multi-modal transport . There are plans to introduce a common ticketing system even for autos on the lines of BMTC-Metro tickets. Besides , we also discussed on introducing autorickshaw stands at metro stations,” he said.
He added that passengers travelling in metro would require another mode of transport to travel short distances from the stations. “We will be conducting a study on the metro stations and the number of auto drivers in the vicinity of stations. It will take another 8 to 10 days to complete this study. We will advise auto drivers to come to the stand near the stations. However, this concept would be fully functional only after Reach 2 (Magadi Road to Mysore Road Terminal) or Reach 3 (Yeshwantpur to Swastik) starts commercial operations,” Srinivasa Murthy said.
There are 21,000 autorickshaw drivers in the federation alone. As per the records, there are 85,000 registered autorickshaws in the city.
M Manjunath of Adarsh Auto and Taxi Drivers’ Union said that they have held talks with the additional commissioner of police (traffic and security) to allow autorickshaw stands at the metro stations . “Though those travelling long distances, especially from Byappanahalli to MG Road, would prefer taking metro , they would need autorickshaws to commute short distances . Hence, we wouldn’t lose all the passengers,” he said.
He added that police have asked them to identify the drivers and enrol their names in every jurisdiction. Metro fares ranging between Rs 10 and Rs 15 from MG Road to Byappanahalli would reduce the dependency on autorickshaw.