Bengaluru: Two-Stroke Autos To Be Banned From April 2018

With the increase in pollution levels in the city, the Transport Department has decided to ban two-stroke auto rickshaws from April 1, 2018. B Dayananda, Transport Commissioner announced this on December 26 and said that there are 50,000 two-stroke autos running in the city. They have set a target where they plan on installing 10,000 four-stroke autos in a year.

To scrap the two-stroke auto rickshaws, two centres — one each in Rajajinagar and Nelamangala — would be opened. These centres will be equipped to scrap around 150 autorickshaws every day.

How to go about it?

The owners of the auto rickshaws who give it up for scrapping would be given a subsidy of Rs. 30,000. The subsidy would be directly transferred to their bank accounts.

“The subsidy amount is for the autorickshaw owners to buy a four-stroke auto rickshaw. We have a budget of ₹30 crore, with which the department will be able to extend the subsidy to 10,000 two-stroke auto rickshaw owners,” he said, according to The Hindu article.

Cost of four-stroke auto

A new four-stroke auto cost around Rs 1.5 lakhs. The auto associations have been demanding an increase of the subsidy from 30,000 to 50,000. Dayananda said that the proposal has been forwarded to the Finance Department and appropriate action will be taken soon.