The CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers charge commuters at their will in the port city defying the rule of counting fare on the meter.
Passengers complain that the drivers ask for the fares at their own will, and sometimes, demand almost twice the actual amount. The situation gets worse during school and office hours in the morning and in the evening.
The commuters said they hardly got CNG-run auto-rickshaws without haggling over the fare as their drivers declined to run the meters for the drives. Many sources also confirmed the fact.
A ride from Dewanhat to New Market should cost around Tk50 in a CNG-run auto-rickshaw, but the drivers were charging up to Tk80, said Nur Mohammad, a computer engineer of Flora Computers in Chittagong.
Abdul Mannan, a schoolteacher, who regularly goes to his workplace by CNG-run auto-rickshaw, said the fare from the city’s Oxygen intersection to Agrabad now stood at Tk150-Tk200, whereas he paid almost half the amount just a year ago. The commuters blame the three wheelers’ drivers for high fares while the transport workers attribute the excessive fare to the rising prices of daily essentials.
A CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver Md Anwar said he pays Tk800 to the owner of the three-wheeler every day.
Moreover, he said the gas price had shot up and he needs around Tk200 per day to fill up the cylinder.
“So we have no other way but to charge high fares for our survival,” he added. Expressing the same opinion, another driver Faruk Hossain said the meters should be re-fixed taking into account the increased cost of essentials.
According to fare structure set by the government in January 2011, commuters have to pay Tk25 for the first two kilometres and Tk7 for each subsequent kilometre. The waiting charge is Tk1.35 per minute.
Haider Azam Chowdhury, president of Chittagong District and general secretary of Chittagong City CNG-Run Auto-Rickshaw Malik Chalok Oikya Parishad, admitted that the auto-rickshaw drivers charged extra fare from passengers. If auto-rickshaws run on meter there will be no hassle between passengers and drivers. He called upon the government to re-fix the meter rates of CNG-run auto-rickshaws in consultation with their owners and drivers.
Mohammad Shahidullah, assistant director of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Chittagong divisional office, claimed that they regularly conducts mobile court drives to check the irregularities in fares charged by auto-rickshaw drivers.
He, however, puts emphasis on people’s awareness to this end.
“If commuters instantly inform the on-duty police personnel about charging extra fare by the drivers, it will be very much effective in checking the irregularities,” Shahidullah further said.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Tanvir Arafat (Traffic-South) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police said they were very much active in this regard.
They regularly checked irregularities about charging additional fares by the CNG-run auto rickshaw drivers from the commuters and took action against those found guilty, he added.
According to BRTA, there are around 15,000 CNG-run auto-rickshaws plying across the port city roads.
