Autorikshaw fares

Think Chennai, Autoriskhaw, and the words that would immediately come to your mind are of the type - exorbitant, fleece, rip-off, etc. On many occasions I have tried to understand the logic behind the fares but haven't got anywhere. I am trying to piece together my experiences with autowalahs in different cities.

This morning too, for my travel from Chennai Central railway station to my residence in K K Nagar which is about 15km away, all the way from the platform to the pre-paid auto counter, autowalahs were aggressively offering me a "very reasonable" fare of Rs 220. Some others pretend to claim that they are 'prepaid auto' in the vicinity of the prepaid counter with 'prepaid rates' of Rs 170-200. The actual prepaid rate is Rs 129. The prepaid driver does not mumble or crib about the fare and behaves well with you, not even once hating you for the potential "loss of extra revenue up to Rs 90".

If we analyze from a per-km perspective, this prepaid rate of Rs 130 for the 15 km works out to less than Rs 9/km which is cheaper than the auto fares in most towns. My best experience with autorikshaws have been in Trivandrum, Trichur, Kozhikode and Kannur (in Kerala) and Kolhapur, Mumbai. In most other places (all district headquarters in Kerala, 4-5 cities in TN, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Kolkata, Delhi, etc) the experience ranges from unpleasant to worse, the worst being in Delhi. Jaipur and Gandhinagar/Ahmedabad have been average.

In Bangalore, most of them do run on meters (which are a showpiece in Chennai autos). But then you run the risk of being taken for a city tour if you are not familiar with the locality, or being told absurd reasons like 'sunday, so more fare' or ' so more fare', 'meter plus <10/20/30>' or 'meter * 2', etc. 

In Trivandrum/Trichur/Kozhikode/Kannur, you get very reasonable and affordable fares, which are at most meter plus 2-3 rupees within the city, well within 6-8 rupees per km. But the moment you step out of the corporation boundary, you are doomed. For example, in Trivandum, from the Central Railway Station to Peroorkada junction (city limit) would be less than 50 rupees for 7km approx, but add another 900 meters to NCC Nagar, they would ask for at least 100 rupees, just because this is technically outside of the corporation limits - taking the per km rate to more than 12.

In cities like Eranakulam, it is nightmarish - the rikshaws themselves have set a rate of Rs 12 per km, and worse, behave arrogantly (which sometimes makes me forgive the average fleecer chennai autowalah, for, though he is fleecing, he would treat you like a king).

One thought I have is that wherever the public transport system is good, the autorikshaws have less demand and more supply, hence try to increase the price. Chennai and Ernakulam have excellent public transport infrastructure and hence have high autorikshaw fares. Trivandrum has a pathetic and irregular public transport and autorikshaws are mostly greater in demand than supply, hence affordable fares.

Another argument I hear as the reason for Chennai fares is that they have to pay a daily rent of 150-200 rupees to the vehicle owner, as well as fend for the fuel expenses themselves, so they have no other option than to charge high. I am not very sure about this part - that most autorikshaws are in fact, owned by policemen in benaami, due to which the policemen also don't take any action to enforce govt approved rates (which are at an unbelievable Rs 6/km, fixed in 2007).

What are your thoughts?

Madras Players' Witness for the Prosecution

Last evening was made wonderful by Madras Players' excellent play - Witness for the Prosecution, adapted from a story by Agatha Christie. 

Courtroom scenes have always captured my interest in movies, but to do such a riveting courtroom scene live on stage must require a lot of talent. And for the Madras Players, talent was in abundance - the protagonist's (played by Vivek) body language and expressions were a perfect fit for the role, and the actor who played the defence lawyer had an amazing screen presence. Other actors too excelled - ones who played the roles of the housekeeper (with very convincing Italian accented English) and that of the protagonist's wife (including a different get up in one scene and German accent).

I must have also benefited from not having read the original story/novel, because of the suspense, one would keep thinking that the protagonist's role was single dimensional till the very end. I had mostly felt that Agatha Christies writing was too detailed and dragging at times. Kudos to the entire team behind the show for converting that into a complete fast paced thriller (and for improvising on some very minor goof-ups).

I'm now a fan of the Madras Players and I have resolved to see their plays whenever possible :-)

On a public holiday...

... stay at home and sleep! At least that's what I learnt on the birth anniversary of the father of our nation. After having "wasted" the last 2 or 3 public holidays by lazing at home, I & wifey decided to venture outside and watch a movie. Since we had not planned in advance for the movie, most of the cinemas were sold out, and we therefore tried our luck at Mayajaal.

At Mayajaal though we reached at 1:30 pm, we could get tickets for only a 5 o'clock show. We decided to make most of the available time by going to Mahabalipuram. As soon as one enters mahabalipuram panchayat, they collect Rs 20 as entry fees. Driving further towards the beach the traffic was very heavy with frequent jams, as everyone seemed to have come out for the holiday. We had to turn back as there was absolutely no space to even stop the car, let alone park. Thus we came back to Mayajaal having donated Rs 20 to Mahabalipuram panchayat and without seeing anything.

At Mayajaal also the crowd was huge, and the atmosphere was just like any Rs 20 ticket theatre. The only consolation was the goodness of the movie "Unnai Pol Oruvan" though I liked its Hindi original "A Wednesday". But then that's for another post

Chennai MRTS

The first time I traveled in the overhead Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) in Chennai around three years ago was out of curiosity. My home state of Kerala doesn't have metro rail in any of its major cities, let alone one that runs on elevated tracks.

[pic: Mylapore (Thirumayilai) MRTS Station]

I became a more frequent user of the MRTS after I shifted my residence to Adyar area, which made Kasturba Nagar station just 5 minutes walk from my house. By then railways had extended the service to Velachery and increased the frequency to once every fifteen minutes. This mode of transport made an excellent alternative to the slow, crowded MTC buses, and the extremely expensive autorikshaws (one has to shell out anywhere between 100 and 150 to travel from Chennai Central to Adyar). At Rs 6 per ticket, and a travelling time of just 20 minutes, MRTS trains are a relief, the only grouses being that the services stops before 9 pm, and that most stations are in bad shape. The station at Kasturba Nagar (at Madhya Kailash signal) sports modern looks (at least most part of it), though the one at Indira Nagar is pathetic. Now that the usage rate has gone up, I hope that railways begin to keep the stations properly maintained and well lit.

[pic: MRTS track near Mylapore]

One-ways and a new definition of Bangalored

Do one-ways really solve traffic problems? If my personal experiences in Chennai and Bangalore are anything to go by, they do not. They simply divert un-necessary congestion to more places.

Take the case of Little Mount- Raj Bhavan - Halda triangle one way system in Chennai - I personally feel that this arrangement has only made life difficult for pedestrians. The waiting time avoided at the signals have been replaced by waiting time in front of Little Mount court for pedestrian crossing. And if there is no policeman around, then it is impossible for a pedestrian to cross the road, as the road is very wide and all vehicles speed up on this road. In the evenings, the road from Raj Bhavan to Halda Junction (towards mount road) is congested as was the case before the introduction of the one way system.

Similar is the case with TTK road/CP Ramaswamy Road, though I think it is too early to take a call on this.

Traffic has somehow tremendously increased in the last two years and I find more and more roads in Chennai becoming one ways, like it happens in Bangalore. I would like to add a new definition to the term Bangalored (the real one being this whereas my definition is based on personal experiences) - "the feeling you get when you carefully plan your trip from one end of the city to another, only to find at a crucial junction that it had been made a one way overnight! And that you would need to drive at least 2 km extra to overcome this hurdle".