A lakh e-rickshaws on road, just 4.5k legal

NEW DELHI: Days after an e rickshaw crushed a three-year-old boy in northeast Delhi's Mansarovar Park, the danger posed by such vehicles has again been called into question.
E-rickshaws were introduced in the city to provide lastmile connectivity from bus and Metro stations. However, most of them are not registered with the transport authority . Also, in most cases, they are driven rashly -and by young men without licence.The drivers, however, complain that registration is a time-consuming and expensive process.
One such driver, Ranjeet Kumar (27), continues to ply an unregistered vehicle despite having been caught once and asked to shell out a Rs 600-fine.He says, “I applied for a licence two months ago, but there's been no movement on my application. I've to pay off the loan on my vehicle. So, I've no other option but to ply illegally.“
Another driver, Rumesh Kumar (25), who operates from Kailash Colony Metro station, agrees: “The rickshaw cost Rs 1 lakh and I need to spend another Rs 50,000 to get a fitness certificate. I can't afford it.“
Unregistered vehicles, however, are the least of the city's problems. Most e-rickshaws are run with little regard for traffic rules: drivers can ferry only four passengers at a time.Adherence to this norm on Delhi roads remains a pipedream.
While commuters complain of rashly driven e-rickshaws, they prefer it over other modes because of economy . Says Anchal Sharma (34), a resident of Sant Nagar: “Earlier, I had to walk a kilometre to reach the Metro station, but now it hardly takes 5 minutes in an e-rickshaw.“
The regular autowallahs are, of course, miffed. “These drivers have no licence or batch number. They drive rashly and the police let them ply freely ,“ says Gurdeep Singh, who drives an auto in south Delhi. Traffic police, on the other hand, claim to have restricted the movement of e-rickshaws on main roads to avoid congestion.