Chennai Auto Drivers Mafia Incorporated

Chennai auto drivers demand exorbitant rates. This was something which i suspected the very first day i landed in nammaa Chennai. Over the past two years this suspicion transformed into a kind of gnawing thought every time i would sit in an auto. i once estimated that in an average semester i might be spending around 2000 bucks on autos only. Fresh from an internship, where i did some sort of field work, i decided to actually compare the auto fares of Chennai with Delhi.

As soon as you land in the city, u get those pesky autodrivers at the central station. Tell them 'IITiah' and pat comes '350 rupees sir' (may be my Kumaoni face gives away my north Indian identity too quickly). The distance of campus from central station is about 14kms ....which is almost comparable(13.7 kms) to distance of Saket from Old Delhi Railway station. And there they demand 170 bucks at the first contact (irrespective of your ethnicity). So 'first contact' fare itself is almost twice in Chennai. Then you haggle ....and the first time i was able to finally bring the guy down to 140 bucks ..but this time (night around 10) they bargained hard and finally i paid 200 bucks. While the Delhi auto fare is 120 even today ( night time charges included). So it is like 1.5 times more expensive even after bargaining.

Now i have to go to T nagar sometimes, which is like at a distance of about 4-5 kms from campus gate. In Delhi, something comparable would be malviya nagar-Ansal Plaza. While Chennai auto drivers never settle for anything below 70 bucks, Delhi guys do it happily for 40 rupees.

Chennai auto drivers rob you naked. Though the difference in fuel ( Diesel) prices between two metros is never more than 2 or 3 rupees. Delhi autos run on CNG which comes at 22 or 21 Rs per kg, and runs almost the same distance as it would have on diesel fuel. Chennai auto drivers use diesel at 34 Rs. per ltr. Thus the difference on a litre of a fuel is no more than 10 rupees. But the differences in fares is huge. Probably it has to do with the way autos are bought here.

In Delhi, a new auto will set you back by about 4.5 lakhs. Add to it Rs 10000 for unnecessary things like dipper, headlights, wiper etc and very necessary ones like a portrait of Bipasha in her best bikini. Out of the 4.5 lakhs, 1.3 lakh is the cost of the machine. Then 30000 Rs more for the body and the paint etc. The rest has to be paid as bribery, license fees and fees paid to agents who fix all the work. This is partly due to the fact that new licenses are not available. So in case you buy an auto, you have to find someone ready to sell his old auto's license. This work is done by a shady network of agents, who have oiled the transport department well over the years.

The system works on an amazing amount of trust. The dealers trust the government officials enough that they will not let any work get done in a time period of anything less than 6 months. This ensures that the auto drivers are forced to go through dealers and agents to fasten up things. And government officials trust the dealers enough that they will pay them a decent chunk every month, irrespective of market conditions. One example of this trust: Since the officials can't move around with the bribe money, neither keep the money with themselves in their desks or almirahs (in case they get caught in a vigilance raid) they usually deposit the bribery amount with the friendly neighbourhood chaiwallah (who in turn was able to set up his shop due to his contacts with people in the dept...and he was trusted enough), who keeps the money safely till the evening. And the uncle ji collects his money in the evening.

So to all these costs, add an additional amount of Rs. 6000 as maintenance. And this fairly adds up the input costs of an auto wallah in Delhi. In case he is driving a hired auto he has to pay Rs. 300 as daily rental. Plus he has to pay for the gas and maintenance charges. The average life span of an auto is around 4-6 years (depending upon the skill and how big a fan of shatrughan sinha the auto guy is). Given these input costs, the Delhi auto fares make sense.

i have never been able to strike up a conversation with auto driver in Chennai, and i do not know how the system works in Chennai. But given the fares it looks like a mafia operating.

P.S.: No disrespect intended to any govt. dept.

The information is largely gleaned form conversations with auto drivers in Delhi.