RailEnquiry

UDUPI: The prepaid autorickshaw counter that opened at Udupi Railway station recently has come as a relief for railway passengers. This has reduced the burden of passengers as auto rickshaw drivers only charge pre-determined fares.Complaints of autos refusing to take passengers to their destination were common. This prepaid counter operates round the clock and nearly 120 autorickshaws have registered with them.Passengers were tricked by greedy auto drivers to pay Rs 150 to ferry them from the railway station to the city bus stand - a distance of just 4.5 km; now it's a fixed charge of Rs 70.Keerthan whose family which travels to Goa every month to meet their close relatives in Madgoan told TOI that though pre-paid system is an ideal step, the minimum fare from Railway station to Indrali bus stand should have been Rs 20 like before instead of Rs 25 now which is a distance of one km.For every additional kilometer, Rs 15 is charged. Few junctions are notified and a charge is fixed. From the station to Kalsanka, the fare is Rs 55; to Sharada Kalyana Mantap, it is Rs 40. In the same way, few more junctions are notified in the taluk limits and after the junction if the passenger wants to go further, meter charges apply.

Three percent of the hire charges go for the maintenance of the prepaid counter and each auto driver is supposed to pay Rs 5 per day as parking charges. The commuter fare is 1.5 times between 10pm and 5am.

R L Dais, president of Railway Yatri Sangha, told TOI that the sangha had approached the chairman of Konkan Railway in Belapur on the need for the pre-paid counter at Udupi railway station. After series of meetings at RTO and DC's office, it was decided to call for the tender. In the absence of counter, there were instances of auto drivers charging three times higher than the actual price. But now everyone seems to be happy. He added this kind of pre-paid counter should operate in all the railway stations.