Assam: E-rickshaws causing traffic congestion in Boko

Boko Town Assam is witnessing heavy traffic jams these days as hundreds of battery-operated rickshaws or E- Rickshaws coming to the city via National Highway (NH) 17 forcing other vehicles to crawl.   

Traffic jams have become a common phenomenon and besides these several people have lost their lives and many of them have sustained injuries in a collision with an e-rickshaw. 

Anupam Rabha, a mechanic of E- Rickshaws, claimed that there are four shops in Boko, and from these shops around 100 e- rickshaws are sold every month.

Meanwhile, when asked about a solution to this problem the Kamrup District Transport Officer Rupjyoti Kalita, said, "e- rickshaws running on highways is strictly prohibited. That is why we recently organized a road safety awareness meeting in Boko. If e-rickshaws are still breaking the rules and regulations, we will take lawful actions against them."

"I will send a team to check and control the matter,'' added RTO Kalita.

On August 5, an Enforcement inspector of Kamrup district Krishna Kanta Patgiri along with a team visited the Boko. 

"We have seen the chaos at Boko town which was created by the E- Rickshaws. But we failed to control the jam because if we seized the e- rickshaws, which were violating traffic rules, due to lack of space in the Boko Police Station, we can't keep the seized e- rickshaws," he said.

Speaking on the same, the Boko PS Officer in Charge Phanindra Nath, said, "We had seized e- rickshaws that broke rules many times. After these kinds of actions, for some days e- rickshaws obeyed the rules and regulations and again they started violating the rules." 

"If we take any actions against violators, drivers of the e- rickshaws start allegations that the Assam Police has been brutal against the poor and the working class", Nath added.

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