Mumbai: The Maharashtra government's newly formed welfare board for auto-rickshaw and meter taxi drivers has registered 9,223 members across 17 RTO offices as of March 31. Named after late Shiv Sena leader Dharmaveer Anand Dighe, the board was formally established on January 2025, with an initial state corpus of ₹50 crore a first-of-its-kind initiative aimed at bringing unorganised transport workers under the social security net.
Kalyan and Thane RTOs led the enrolments with 1,654 and 1,020 members respectively. Membership requires a one-time registration fee of ₹500 and an annual subscription of ₹300. Drivers need only an Aadhaar card and mobile number to sign up through the board's dedicated portal. Benefits on offer include a ₹10,000 retirement honorarium for drivers aged 65 and above, scholarship schemes for children, financial aid for on-duty injuries, and proposed life and disability insurance coverage.
The initiative, conceived by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde during his tenure as Chief Minister, matters because Maharashtra has over nine lakh registered auto-rickshaws and meter taxis yet fewer than one percent have enrolled so far. Awareness, accessibility, and outreach remain the board's biggest challenges before it can deliver meaningful welfare to the state's lakhs of daily-wage transport workers.
Total registered drivers (state) | 9 lakh+
Members enrolled so far - 9,223
Registration fee - ₹500
Annual subscription - ₹300
Retirement benefit (65+ yrs)- ₹10,000
Top district — Kalyan - 1,654 registration
RTOs covered - 17
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Membership registration is in Mumbai Central – 414
Mumbai (West) – 378
Mumbai (East) – 275
Borivali – 639
Thane – 1020
Panvel – 246
Kalyan – 1654
Sindhudurg – 217
Ratnagiri – 298
Kolhapur – 256
Sangli – 241
Pune – 384
Solapur – 226
Pimpri-Chinchwad – 367
Satara – 280
Aurangabad – 250
Latur – 200
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