Mangaluru : In a meeting presided by the deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district Sindhu P Rupesh at her office on Thursday, February 27 it was decided to raise the minimum fares and others charges for autorickshaw rides from April 1.

Accordingly, the minimum fare for the first 1.5 km has been raised to Rs 30 from Rs 25, from each kilometre thereon it will be Rs 15, previously it was Rs 13.

There will not be any waiting charges for the first fifteen minutes but every fifteen minutes after that it will be Rs 5. Luggage will be charged at Rs 5 for every kilogram over 20 kilograms.

Additionally, all autorickshaws can charge one and a half time the regular fare for rides between 10 pm to 5 am.

Apart from this, autorickshaw owners discussed some problems faced by them including increasing competition from bike taxis and the lack of designated places across the city to park their autorickshaws.

Mangaluru RTO officer Ramakrishna Rai, Puttur RTO officer K Ananda Gowda, ASP Vikram V Amate and ACP (Traffic) Manjunath Shetty and others were also present in the meeting.