RailEnquiry

RANCHI: When deputy commissioner Vinay Chaubey made the announcement of a prepaid auto stand for Hatia railway station from August 15 this year, the travellers heaved a sigh of relief in the hope that they would no longer have to bear up with the whims and fancies of auto drivers. Four months have passed since the announcement was made, the railway station is yet to have a prepaid stand. Fifty prepaid autos were to be deployed at Hatia railway station to provide 24x7 hrs service. Mohit Sahu, an engineering student, who lives in Bangalore but visits Ranchi at times, said, "I usually board the Hatia Yeshwantpur Express and every time I have to go home from the station, I invariably get into a heated discussion with the auto drivers as they always charge more. I was hoping that with the prepaid auto stand, I would no longer run the risk of being fleeced every time I visited the city. But I guess, I will have to wait a little longer for that." Prepaid auto stand was started at Ranchi railway station in August 2011 but did not get a very good response, following which it was shut down. Raju Kumar, one of the drivers who was allotted space in the stand, said, "It was really difficult for us to manage prepaid auto as the fare never increased and those driving non-prepaid autos earned much more than we did. As a result, none of us wanted to drive pre-paid autos." The DC said the prepaid auto stand could not be started immediately as the administration was not sure about the kind of response it would get. He added, "The prepaid auto service did not receive a good response from the people. This resulted in the stand remaining closed for months. We have changed the operator for the service and will relaunch it. Only if it gets a good response, can we think of starting a prepaid auto stand at Hatia."