No to Nano: Autos will rule

No to Nano: Autos will rule
BENGALUR


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“We cannot be brand-specific, and I don’t think that introduction of Nano cars as city taxis is feasible,” Bhaskar Rao.

The Tata Nano won’t replace the autorickshaws in the city. The Transport department has shown the thumbs down to its minister R. Ashok’s proposal to bring in some 10,000 Nanos initially and eventually replace all autorickshaws in the city.
The objection: Transport officials fear Mr Ashok’s brainstorm would land them in trouble as they would be accused of favouring one company, Tata Motors, and perhaps even find them in violation of the Transparency Act.

Transport commissioner Bhaskar Rao told this newspaper, “We cannot be brand-specific, and I don’t think that introduction of Nano cars as city taxis is feasible. The project is not on the cards and we do not

intend to take it up in the t future, either."
s Sources said Mr Ashok's plan would have involved e spending crores of rupees e and would have put the d BMTC in charge of pron curement.
A senior RTO official said any such proposal would r merely add more vehicles to the existing 35 lakh on the e city's roads. "The Centre t has asked the state to limit f auto rickshaw permits to s 80,000. That point has t already been reached," he t said.