RANCHI, INDIA: Ranchi Traffic police have seized 230 auto rickshaws, which ran with over 10-year-old permits or none at all here the other day.
“During the day-long drive, we seized over 80 autos that had been running without permits,” said district transport officer Nagendra Paswan. Each and every auto crossing the city’s thoroughfares, like Kantatoli Chowk, Jail Chowk, Kutchery Chowk and Sahajanand Chowk, was checked for valid permit.
A committee, comprising the transport secretary, the DIG and high court judges, met on Thursday and decided for expediting implementation of a Jharkhand high court order in 2008 to take old vehicles off Ranchi’s roads. The transport office on Friday said it seized around 150 autos that have been plying for 10 years or more.
Transport secretary Kamal Kishore Soan on Friday said the ongoing drive would intensify in the coming days. The transport department on Thursday had vowed to improve traffic problems in Ranchi by widening the streets through anti-encroachment drives. Around 3,000 auto rickshaws ply on city roads.
The meeting, which was attended by top cops, decided that autos that run without valid permits (over 1,200) were to be taken off the roads with immediate effect.
On January 7, transport officials had seized 11 school buses for flouting safety guidelines. Drivers and conductors were caught without expert licence and in drunken state while school buses themselves did not meet security requirements laid down for safety of school students.
