The clampdown on autos with tampered meters has taken drivers by surprise. Since Friday night, RTO officials, using a manually operated machine, have caught 97 drivers in the western suburbs

Tamper tracker is here

The clampdown on autos with tampered meters has taken drivers by surprise. Since Friday night, RTO officials, using a manually operated machine, have caught 97 drivers in the western suburbs

auto-rickshaw

When the RTO officials cracked the whip on autorickshaw drivers in the western suburbs on Friday night, they were armed with a special machine.
The device, specifically designed to identify mechanically-run and tampered autorickshaw meters, proved to be an effective tool for the RTO officials to bring 97 errant drivers to book.
Deputy Regional Transport officer from the Andheri RTO, Bharat Kalaskar, who initially conceptualised the machine, said it is a basic machine equipped to check if a meter runs fast.
"The driving gear or the driving wheel inside the mechanical meters has to have 67 teeth so that it covers the mandatory distances for the corresponding fare slabs. If it does not, we can catch the irregularity by simply rotating the machine's wheel after attaching a wire of the meter which is connected to the autorickshaw engine," said Kalaskar.
Though the machine has not been sanctioned by any official agency, the officer said, its track record is "fairly impressive" and no errors of reading the mechanical meters have been reported.
If any driver has complaints about the machine, he can go to a manufacturing company's repair unit or technical laboratories to get the results verified, the official said.
"That is precisely what we are doing right now. All the 97 errant drivers caught have been asked to go to technical labs and repair units to get their meters checked. Once they are done, we will give them the required clearance," said Kalaskar.
On Monday, more than 40 drivers whose autorickshaws tampered meters were confiscated, took possession of them and went to the manufacturer's repair unit.
Autorickshaw union leader Thampy Kurien said that hundreds of autorickshaw drivers were lined up outside repair units. "There were rumours about a citywide crackdown against tampered meters. Many, who were unsure if their rickshaw meters were functioning properly, also approached the repair shops. Perhaps, they thought it best to get their meters verified, especially when some autorickshaw drivers were threatening them from plying the vehicles," Kurien said citing another reason for few autorickshaws in the western suburbs.