About Indian auto rickshaw (tuk tuk)

For people in India, these monsters on the road are more like anybody's daily affair. People from abroad see them as a cute, loving vehicle on the road. Foreigners don't forget to take a ride on them while visiting the rustic side of this country. Yes I am talking about the modest "auto-rickshaw" of India.

The auto-rickshaws always formed a very important part of Indians in last couple of decades. The yellow and black vehicles are found almost everywhere in this country. These vehicles have become so very famous among the foreigners that tourists traveling into India keenly look forward to ride one of these vehicles when they are in this country.

It is almost a daily affair for me to travel by one of these monsters on road. When you travel by one of them, you get to hear almost all the octaves of the sound spectrum and sometimes get very close to get a ride on your nerves. It’s very easy to hear the rather roaring throttle of auto-rickshaws in India. Recently we got to hear a lot "about" these monsters in the international media with a rather sweetened name to it - "Tuk Tuk". Some businessman in the UK formed an organization to provide the Britons with a different riding "experience".

It certainly gaining a lot of lime light being one of the "cutest" inventions of the overly crowded country with not-to-discuss road network. There is always a positive and a negative side of all great inventions. While this vehicle does form a very important part of the Indian commutation, slowly and steadily it is becoming a nuisance on Indian roads. Go to any city in this country you will get shocking stories of how these monsters are being driven around. I remember the days when Bhubaneswar (Capital of my home state - Orissa) did not allow these vehicles to ply on its broad, clean roads. Now when I go back and see the grim situation of the traffic system, I happily give more than half the credit to these modest auto-rickshaws.

I am sure, citizens of all the cities in this country will have scary stories about these vehicles on their roads. Mumbai - where I am living currently, is hell of a place when you talk about these three wheelers.

The blame is not on the manufacturers of these vehicles. The blame is certainly on the government systems which do not do a proper scrutiny of the ability of the people who claim to be driving these vehicles. I have seen lot many times "kids" try to drive these vehicles trying to earn some extra money for their living. Is their a way we can stop these things? There needs to a control on the number of these vehicles to be allowed on roads. There needs to be systems in place to allow only “legal” drivers drive these vehicles. More than anything else, there needs to be a system in place to "educate" these drivers the "etiquettes" of driving.

The question is who will take the responsibility? The manufacturer, the government or again the NGOs? Till this question is answered, we the public are going to bear the brunt...as always.