Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Bhopal traffic police have failed to act upon the regulations drafted by them for operation of e-rickshaws. Notably, in May, the traffic police had introduced several regulations for the e-rickshaw drivers to ensure smooth traffic flow, which included construction of dedicated e-rickshaw stands, setting up of proper charging stations away from the road and the allotment of the areas.
In the draft, it had been proposed that the e-rickshaw drivers shall be allowed to shuttle only within 15 kilometres of their radius and not beyond that. The traffic police had announced that the regulations shall come into effect after the model code of conduct is lifted on June 6.
However, months after the MCC was suspended, the regulations have not been enforced and none of the proposals came into effect, owing to which traffic snarls and gridlocks are still prevalent across the city. The haphazard driving and every now-and-then stopping of the e-rickshaws in the middle of the road have been causing immense inconvenience to commuters, even during the non-peak hours.
4K e-rickshaws registered, 12K on roads
According to the data sourced from the regional transport office (RTO) of Bhopal, 4,000 e-rickshaws have been registered. However, close to 12,000 e-rickshaws have been shuttling across city roads.
Rampant underage driving
Scores of e-rickshaw drivers are underage kids, falling between 12 to 17 years of age, and the traffic police have been staying mute over the irregularity. No instances of crackdown on the arbitrary conduct of e-rickshaw drivers have been reported by the police till now.
Amendments being made to draft: DCP (traffic)
When the issue was brought to the notice of DCP (Traffic) Sanjay Singh, he said several amendments are being made to the e-rickshaw regulation draft and once the changes are made, the draft will be released.
