Delhi govt impounded 100 e-rickshaws daily during August 22-28 data shows

New Delhi, Aug 30 (PTI) About 1,700 unregistered e-rickshaws in Delhi were impounded and sent for scrapping during August 1-28 after the lieutenant governor directed the city government to curb the "illegal proliferation" of these vehicles.
    During a high-level meeting on decongesting the national capital chaired by Lt Governor VK Saxena on August 8, the transport department was directed to impound unregistered e-rickshaws.
    These battery-operated vehicles have, over the years, become the go-to option for last-mile connectivity.
    Officials said 39 teams deployed on Outer Ring Road and Inner Ring Road were involved in impounding e-rickshaws.
    Following Saxena's directions, there has been a spurt in the number of such vehicles being impounded. Once impounded, the vehicles are crushed using road rollers or excavators and handed over to a registered scrapping facility.
    Transport department data shows that only 134 e-rickshaws were impounded between January and March. The number swelled to 732 during April to July.
    Between August 1 and 28, however, 1,777 e-rickshaws were impounded, the data showed.
    The figures showed that 716 e-rickshaws were impounded between August 1 and August 15 at an average of 47 vehicles per day. From August 16 to August 21, a total of 361 e-rickshaws -- at a daily average of 60 -- were impounded.
    From August 22, the daily average surged to 100 with 700 e-rickshaws being impounded between August 22 and 28, the data showed.
    In 2023, the Delhi government impounded 834 e-rickshaws between January and March while 61 were seized from April to June.
    The number of seizures surged to 1,277 between July and September before falling to 233 between October and December.
    "The impounded e-rickshaws are non-registerable and the only option is to scrap them through an auction. The (transport) department has also taken a decision to reduce the waiting time for scrapping from 90 days to seven days. The Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Rules, 2019, state that if a towed vehicle is not released within 90 days, then it can be auctioned off by the impounding agency," an official said.
    The rules are, however, silent on unregistered vehicles and a decision was taken to reduce the waiting time to seven days, he said.
    The official figures showed that there are approximately 1.2 lakh registered e-rickshaws in the national capital. However, many ply on the roads without a valid registration, causing congestion and posing a risk to safety.
    There is a dedicated pit in Burari for keeping the impounded e-rickshaws. There are two other pits in Sarai Kale Khan and Dwarka where the impounded vehicles are taken, the official said.
    However, there is a need to find more empty land for setting up new impounding pits, he added.
    The crackdown has left e-rickshaw drivers worried about their livelihood.
    Shyam Kumar, an e-rickshaw driver, told PTI, "Yesterday (Thursday), enforcement officers impounded my e-rickshaw and, when I asked how I could get my vehicle back, they said it would be scrapped soon."
    "I bought the e-rickshaw some time ago by borrowing money from my relatives and now it will be scrapped. It was my livelihood. What am I supposed to do now?" he said.
    Another e-rickshaw driver echoed Kumar and said he had been driving his vehicle for a year but nothing happened.
    "Last year, my vehicle was impounded but I got it back after paying some money. Now, I have been told that it will be scrapped. I have urged them not to send it for scrapping but my pleas have fallen on deaf ears," he said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)