In Chennai, the cab and auto drivers demanded huge amount as fares amidst heavy rains
Posted on: 25/Nov/2020 9:06:29 AM
Making hay amidst heavy rains!!
The heavy rains in the Chennai city yesterday had flooded many roads. The cab drivers as well as auto drivers took this as an opportunity and demanded high amounts from the customers.
Throughout yesterday, the demand for cars and autos were very high due to lack of enough cars and autos and due to this the drivers charged double the amount than the original fares. Truth is that less than 3000 drivers logged in for the duty in Chennai fearing damage to their cars due to heavy rains. This was brought out by Mr. T. Ramanujam, TN Call Taxi Owners Association. He spoke about how in the normal times around 7000 cabs log in every day in Chennai.
As fewer private buses were operating, the shortage of cabs got worse as most cabs were used for travelling inter-district. According to a resident belonging to Madipakkam, the autos had a field day yesterday. He explained how not many autos were willing to go to Velachery due to waterlogged roads there. The autos that were willing demanded Rs 400 for the trip from Anna Salai to his house in Madipakkam.
It was later mentioned by some auto drivers that they demanded a huge rate because of taking risk of plying through rain water flooded streets. It must be taken into account that whenever a bus or a lorry overtakes an auto the rain water in the streets could enter into the engine of the auto leading to repairs amounting to Rs 1000 to Rs 1500. It is now said that the number of taxis and autos on roads in Chennai on Wednesday would be based on how bad the flooding and winds are.
For the sake of transportation of the people, MTC would be running 1000 buses today in the Chennai city. Point is that around 1600 MTC buses were operated till 10pm on Tuesday and this despite patronage falling in the night. Those people who came from the districts to Chennai struggled to catch local buses in the early morning at transit points like Tambaram, Kathipara etc.
