Highway brakes on Siliguri totos

Bireswar Banerjee, TT, Sep 15, 2018, Siliguri: The Siliguri administration has decided to make licences must for battery-operated rickshaws and restrict their movement on national and state highways, besides major roads.

The decision was taken to ease traffic movement in Siliguri, one of the most important commercial centres in north Bengal.

During peak hours, traffic almost comes to a halt in some busy stretches areas and the administration believes the unrestricted movement of the battery-operated rickshaws, which are called totos, is one of the major reasons.

"We have decided to regulate the movement of totos by imposing some restrictions. All toto owners will have to obtain a licence," Gautam Deb, the state tourism minister, said on Friday after a meeting with district officials here.

Regional Transport Authority (RTA) officials and police sources say nearly 3,500 totos are plying in and around Siliguri in an unrestricted manner.

"We will not allow totos to ply on national and state highways and through the main roads in Siliguri. If any toto driver violates this rule, stern action will be taken by police," said Deb. Officials of the Siliguri Metropolitan Police were present in the meeting.

The administration has also decided to clamp down on unauthorised toto assembly units. "We will impose a ban on unauthorised assembly of totos in and around the city," said Deb. Some more restrictions on movement of totos are likely to be imposed during the festive season.

The administration has decided to make it mandatory for diesel-operated city autos that have failed fitness and pollution tests to convert to e-rickshaws. "It has come to our notice that most of the city autos have grown old and failed fitness and pollution test. We will make mandatory the conversion of such autos into e-rickshaws after Diwali," said Deb.