Soon travel in Electric Autos on Delhi roads, govt picks applicants for allotment

Women will drive special lilac-coloured autos while men will drive blue e-autos, according to an official statement. The letter of intent to be issued by February 28.

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The Delhi government on February 14 picked applicants for the allotment of electric auto-rickshaws through a computerized draw of lots. As per official sources, they will be issued the letter of intent by February 28. Women will drive special lilac-coloured autos while men will drive blue e-autos, according to an official statement.

Congrats! Under the leadership of Hon’ble CM @ArvindKejriwal, Delhi roads will soon see thousands of E - Autos! Computerized draw of allotment for 2285 male driven E-Autos is complete & will be soon up on https://t.co/dopiWuhY5x. 1st LOI will be issued by Feb 28.

— Kailash Gahlot (@kgahlot) February 14, 2022

The Transport Department will soon start the process of issuance of a letter of intent (LOI) to all successful applicants. The Supreme Court in a decision on February 11 had allowed the Delhi government to resume the process of registration of 4261 e-autos in the national capital.

The scheme was earlier halted due to a lawsuit filed in the court on the government's decision to allow electric autos in place of CNG within the one lakh cap on autos that the Supreme Court had mandated. The Delhi Transport Department in October 2021 launched a scheme for registration of 4261 e-autos, of which 33 percent -- 1,406 e-autos -- will be exclusively reserved for women drivers.

Within less than a month, Delhi had received 20,589 applications in total out of which 19,846 were in the male category. A single common computerized draw of lots through randomization process was held on February 14 by the Transport Department for selection of 2,855 male applicants along with 285 extra applicants to cater to a 10 percent waitlist, said the statement.

The randomized draw was held under the supervision of a committee comprising senior officials of the Transport Department and a special invitee from the Department of Women and Child Development. The list of successful and waitlisted applicants has been displayed on the website of the Transport department. 

"The LOI to the first list of successful male applicants and 743 women applicants will be given by February 28," it said. The successful applicants would be required to purchase the TSR permit and apply for registration on the single-window portal of Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) before April 30.

Failing this, the LOI will be deemed to be surrendered and included in the waiting list. The registration of the e-autos will only be allowed for persons having a valid PSV badge and on the production of LOI, it said. Out of the 1,406 e-auto rickshaws that have been reserved for women applicants, 743 female applicants have applied who will be directly eligible for the scheme and will be issued the LOIs subject to removal of deficiency in some cases where applications are found deficient on certain accounts.

To promote more women drivers, it was decided to invite fresh applications for the balance of 663 e-autos reserved for women and hold a special draw of lots. In case the remaining slots remain un-allotted, the LOI for the remaining 663 e-autos from the women quota will be allotted to the DMRC with the permission to operate these e-autos through an aggregator/ operator with a further condition that the same shall be driven by only women as part of last-mile connectivity, it said.

It was also decided that post allotment in the woman quota, transfer of e-auto rickshaw should be permitted subject to the restrictions of five years only to a woman auto driver. Apart from the colour differentiation, strict enforcement would also be put in place once these autos start running on the roads to ensure that this benefit given to women drivers does not get misused by male drivers, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said.

"Our aim is to make a public transport system which is conducive for women passengers and the most effective step to do that is to create a system steered by women themselves," he added.

With inputs from PTI