Jharkhand High Court on Monday once again directed the government to free Ranchi’s roads of smoke-belching auto-rickshaws, plying within city limits without permits.

Dismissing a bunch of petitions by auto-rickshaw owners, the Delhi High Court on Monday gave the green signal for installation of Global Positioning System (GPS) and printers in auto-rickshaws for tracking their movement and providing print-outs of fares for distances travelled to passengers to provide secure and transparent travel to them in the Capital.

A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice A. K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw also justified the recovery of Rs.7, 500 from the auto-rickshaw operators for installation of the two equipment, saying that they would be able to collect it from passengers by levying 50 paise per km on them as allowed by the Government.

Global positioning systems will now be part of all auto-rickshaws in the city as the Delhi high court on Monday upheld the government’s notification for installation of GPS in auto-rickshaws. A bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice R.S. Endlaw rejected the plea of the auto drivers’ association against GPS installation, saying the same is in line with the global trend.

Dismissing the plea that the State Transport Authority (STA) was not empowered to issue the notification for GPS installation, the bench said, “We don’t see anything wrong in requiring the auto rickshaws to be GPS/GPRS and printer fitted. The same is in consonance with what is happening in the rest of the world.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider objections to the Delhi government’s new policy, which allows one permit per person for fresh applicants and multiple permits for old players.

The Environmental Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA) presentation on a new parking policy for Delhi before the Lieutenant-Governor on Thursday argued that the rate of parking for surface parking should be kept higher than multi-level parking facilities.

Other suggestions related to pricing made by Ms. Sunita Narain and Mr. Bhure Lal at the meeting on behalf of EPCA were to keep parking rates variable based on peak and non-peak hours, number of hours parked, and different categories of lands and colonies.

With virtually all modes of transport going the hybrid way, here’s news that could make the rickshaw – which is now restricted to a few Indian cities and pockets of Asia – a possible mode of public transport.

Twenty-six-year-old Sivaraj Muthuraman, a Tirupur-based innovator, has built a ‘hybrid’ rickshaw called the Eco Free Cab, that runs on solar battery and pedal power. This invention entered the India Book of Records under the Science and Technology Category on Saturday.

Around 45,000 new autorickshaws are set to be added to Delhi roads by September.

The intention was good, the implementation poor.

Acting on a Jharkhand High Court order, the government has decided to phase out 25,000 old and smoke-belching commercial vehicles from the first day of next month.

Calcutta High Court on Thursday stoked the dying embers of the campaign against vehicle pollution by asking the Mamata Banerjee government to explain the continued presence of banned commercial tra