Environment-friendly autos soon

BANGALORE: Environment-friendly autorickshaws will be the norm of the day in the city soon as the Transport Department has finally decided to increase the subsidy for replacing sold autorickshaws to Rs 20,000 from the present Rs 10,000.It has been a long pending demand of the autorickshaw unions that the State government should increase the subsidy from Rs 10,000 to encourage the auto-drivers to switch to the new environment-friendly autorickshaws. Autorickshaw Drivers' Union (ARDU) President Sreenivasa Murthy said that the demand was made to the government during the last autorickshaw fare hike. "We had asked the government to increase the subsidy for purchasing four-stroke autos, which are less polluting, from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000," he said.According to the Transport Department there are some 80,000 autorickshaws in the city and out of these around 27,000 have been identified as polluting and need to be replaced as it will bring down the pollution.OpposedThe autorickshaw unions, however, are opposed to the idea that the old autorickshaws will be have to be scrapped."We have been asked to scrap the old autos, but it is not acceptable to drivers as they think these autorickshaws can be used in other places such as Hubli or other areas of the state," Srinivasamurthy informed.Further, he added that it is the job of the traffic department and transport officials to check that no illegal vehicle is plying on the road.It also, however, has to be noted that in 2005 itself, the State government had stopped the registration of two-stroke autos despite that there is an alarming number of these autos still plying on the road. "Despite several actions initiated by the Transport Department, there are still a large number of two-stroke which are causing immense noise pollution. The silencers of these autos are rigged. They produce very loud noise and emit poisonous fumes," a senior transport department official said.The official, however, assured that stern measures will be taken to curb such autorickshaws from plying on the city roads soon.