Commuters are going to get a much-awaited Diwali gift from theDiwali. In order to phase out old three-wheelers plying without permits and provide easy feeder services to residents, new eco-friendly rickshaws will be introduced in the city post-Diwali. The battery-operated rickshaws will be launched by the Authority in association with a non-profit organization, Samman Foundation. Earlier last month, the Authority had made this decision and a presentation on the feasibility and the design of the project was made by the Samman Foundation last week. Following that the Authority granted the final approval for the rickshaw project.

In the first phase, the Authority plans to introduce 25 rickshaws. In the route for the first phase, the rickshaws will ply in and around Knowledge Park, Pari Chowk, Galgotia College and Sharda University, besides four residential sectors - Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. Depending on the public response to these 25 rickshaws, the Authority will decide on expanding the route and adding more rickshaws to ply in the remaining areas of the city."The state of public transport in the city is not really up to mark. While working on the Special Purpose Vehicle project (SPV), we decided to introduce some form of feeder vehicles to assist residents till the SPV becomes a reality," said Yogendra Yadav, OSD, Greater Noida Authority.

"The Authority is also constantly looking at measures to reduce traffic snarls, pollution levels, etc in the city and to provide convenient modes of travel to residents," Yadav added.Officials say that the new rickshaws will not just provide an environment friendly and speedy option for commuting from one sector to another or within arterial areas, they will also help in reducing the menace of the share autos crowding busy junctions across Greater Noida. Authority officials claim that most of these share autos run illegally without valid permits.

Meanwhile, officials said that details of the MoU of the SPV comprising the Noida and Greater Noida authorities and UPSRTC is under consideration and is likely to be approved soon.The SPV will have officials from Noida, Greater Noida and UPSRTC as representatives. Once the SPV is in place, authorities will work on connecting all residential pockets within the twin cities and the most frequented spots through a new fleet of buses.