Low Average Passenger Occupancy rate of 2.6 Passengers per Auto in Amritsar city – Survey

Survey was conducted in January-February 2020 under Smart City Mission

Amritsar, August 22 (Punjab Post Bureau) – In the months of January and February 2020.Amritsar Smart City Limited conducted comprehensive studyof Auto Rickshaws,for a continuous period of 30 days at99 strategiclocationsacross the city. As part of the study, a passenger occupancy survey for every auto was carried out. The total number of passengers seated in each respective auto were counted.The survey was conducted for a continuous duration of 14 hours per day from 7 am to 9 pm. A common sight in Amritsar, is thatautorickshaws are overloaded with more than 8 to 10passengers, but through the analysis of the survey, the overall average passenger occupancyis very low at just 2.6passengers per trip. The average occupancy during peak hours was3.4 passengers per auto.Thisis justhalf of the permitted seating capacity of mostauto rickshaws. which are registered under the 5+1 category.

               Komal Mittal CEO Amritsar Smart City Limited said that the survey was done in January-February because this is the peak season for tourist footfall in Amritsar and it was the ideal time to obtain the information about auto rickshaw passenger occupancy. She added that during the month-long survey auto rickshaws and their passengers were counted at 99 survey locations and were classified under diesel rickshaws, CNG/LPG rickshaws and E-rickshaws. Despite the ban in 2011 almost 70% of Auto rickshaws in Amritsar city are diesel-based. Nearly 81% of autos plying on the GT road are running on diesel adding to the air pollution in the city.

                   Out of total count nearly 20% of auto rickshaws were found running empty. Most of the empty auto-rickshaws were found on the roads around the ISBT. This was a staggering 34%. meaning 34 out of every 100 autos were running without any passengers. On the Outer Circular Road (around the Walled City) route, passenger occupancy levels were lower than the city average at just 2.4 passengers per auto. Taking into consideration low average vehicle occupancy rates, it would be pertinent to permit only the sale of smaller sized CNG/LPG/Petrol auto rickshaws. The measure would ensure an even distribution of passengers across auto rickshaws thereby enabling a profitable competitive system for auto drivers in the city. The menace of overloading can be significantly curbed in smaller auto rickshaws. Further, this shall be a long-term measure to solve the issue of traffic congestion, because smaller auto rickshaws having a capacity of 3+1 would occupy a lesser road surface area in comparison to large sized auto rickshaws.

              Additionally, Urban Transport Expert of Amritsar smart city said that the main reasons behind the demand and supply of auto rickshaws in the city is due to the large number of shared auto rickshaws and lack of route rationalization. Due to the absence of route rationalization, all auto rickshaw drivers plying on shared basis feel that moving towards the bus stand would give them more passengers per trip, however the contrary is true, as most autos end up plying empty due to the huge supply of rickshaws in this area. This increases the dead mileage of rickshaw drivers thereby affected their earnings. Another outcome from the survey was that often drivers buy new autos at exorbitant interest rates ranging between 13 to 16 percent, and due to lack of expected earnings, they default on payment of timely installments. As a long-term measure to ensure sustainability in the auto rickshaw sector.  The RTA and auto dealers should encourage the sale of new auto rickshaws only on replacement of old auto rickshaw. This will ensure that the number of autos in the city will not increase further.