HARIPUR, Sept 22: An abundance of auto-rickshaws plying without route permits create multiple problems for the district administration, including inflicting financial losses , causing environmental degradation and impeding smooth flow of traffic.

The large number of tri-wheelers, according to an estimate over 300, create traffic jams on the Grand Trunk Road and caused a number of fatal accidents on the busy road. Licences for 60 rickshaws had been issued in 1996 in a bid to replace the horse-drawn Tongas, which were then viewed as the main source of the traffic mess in the city.

Subsequently, another batch of 60 rickshaws was granted licences and presently there were over 800 rickshaws plying on the city roads offering an economical and fast mode of transportation but at the cost of the people's health and lives.

Sources said that the lenient attitude of local traffic police officials and the Road Transport Authority had allowed the owners of these vehicles to operate with impunity.

Most of the tri-wheelers have been brought from other cities, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karak, Charsadda, Peshawar, Bannu, Kohat, Karachi and even Hyderabad. The allotment of new route permits has been banned and rickshaw-owners defy official restrictions and ply their machines on the city roads without any let or fear, said Mr Waheed, a transporter who blamed the traffic police and RTA for the influx of tri-wheelers in the city.

Officially, there are only 494 registered rickshaws while the rest of the vehicles were without any route permit. Under relevant laws, a rickshaw could be granted a route permit the payment of Rs1,065 in annual fees. Those who did not pay the fee were to be penalised at the rate of Rs225 a month.

Interestingly, all rickshaws, except those of 400-plus registered ones, were running around without paying a single penny. Rough calculation showed that most of them owed sums ranging between Rs5,000 and Rs10,000 in unpaid dues.

Qaisar Bashir Awan, an office-bearer of the Hazara Rickshaw Owners Association said that rickshaw owners had applied for route permits but RTA officials had not granted approval as a result unpaid dues had accumulated to the tune of thousands of rupees for every rickshaw, adding that poor rickshaw owners were unable to pay their backlog dues.

He called for regularising rickshaws plying in the city and said that they should be given route permits, adding that the extra tri-wheelers could be sent to ply in the Hattar Industrial Estate. Mr Awan agreed that rickshaw owners should comply with environmental rules.