The Delhi high court on Tuesday ordered a stay on the global positioning system (GPS) scheme of the transport department which mandated installation of GPS/GPRS devices in the autorickshaws of Delhi. The stay, however, comes only for 197 autorickshaws and is effective until May 27, the next date of hearing. The stay came on a writ petition filed by 197 auto drivers with the help of NyayaBhoomi, an NGO working in the autorickshaw sector. There are around 55,000 autorickshaws in Delhi.

The transport department of Delhi had made it mandatory for all the autorickshaws in Delhi to install GPS devices by April but the deadline has now been postponed to October. “This has happened because of technical problems,” an official from the transport department said.

The counsel for the petitioners argued before the court that the transport department has no legal authority to mandate installation of GPS devices under the Motor Vehicles Act. The official from the transport department, however, said that the GPS devices would help in monitoring the autorickshaws and also ensure that they ply according to government rules. “An automatic fare collection system would also be setup to ensure that they charge the passenger by the meter and real-time monitoring will be done,” he added.

But an RTI application filed by NyayaBhoomi to get the details about the GPS/GPRS scheme revealed that the control centre has not been set up yet. The transport department, in the reply, also said the maintenance and repair centres are yet to be built. No provision has been made to train the drivers in the use of GPS devices, it added. It further said that it has not been decided whether fare will be chargeable through GPS or through electronic fare meter. The public notice has made it mandatory to carry a serially numbered complaint book in the autorickshaw but the transport department has not even decided on the format of the complaint book.