CHENNAI: If all goes as per plan, autorickshaws drivers in Chennai will have to ply by GPS-enabled meters and issue printed receipts in about six months. Nudged by the Madras high court to specify a timeframe within which autorickshaws in Tamil Nadu would get meters having printers and GPS, the state government on Monday told the court that the tender process to procure adequate number of such meters would be opened on October 7, and the successful bidder would get six months to roll out the project.

On September 2, the bench initiated contempt of court proceedings against officials concerned saying they had wilfully disobeyed its October 30, 2014 order in which it had laid down eight directions, including revision of fares as per fuel price variation, creation of a toll-free number for lodging complaints and display of driver/owner details in the vehicle.

On Monday, the government filed a counter-affidavit laying bare a sequence of events which would culminate in introduction of GPS-based meters for autorickshaws within six months. The first bench comprising chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and justice TS Sivagnanam, before which the contempt petitions filed by Coimbatore Consumer Voice came up for further orders, recorded the undertaking of the government and said the authorities “shall remain bound by the same.”

It was after a year-long campaign by TOI that the government announced a fare structure for autorickshaws on August 25, 2013. But there has been no revision of fares after that though the petrol price has come down from Rs 74.49 per litre then to Rs 61.46 now.

The government’s counter-affidavit said a 13-member committee drawn from various departments had been constituted to prepare technical specifications and standards for fitting GPS-enabled electronic digital fare meters with printers in autorickshaws plying in Chennai metropolitan area. A government order to this effect was passed on September 29, 2013 itself. The work of procuring such meters was entrusted to ELCOT, as per a government order dated June 26, 2014, it said.

A tender was floated for procurement of electronic digital meters and it was notified on July 20, 2015. The due date for opening the tender was September 4, 2015, but the date was extended till October 7, 2015 on account of a large number of queries raised in respect of the tender, it said.

After narrating the sequence, additional government pleader told the court that the tender would be finalized within a period of two months, and successful bidder would be given six months to implement the scheme.

While taking the assurance of the state government on record, the judges said, “in the unforeseen eventuality of any delay, the authorities shall be bound to move this court for extension of time.”