while the spike in the 2018 numbers is attributed to defreezing of permits by the state government union leaders and transport experts point out that tough competition from ola and uber and now best will force many auto drivers to seek livelihood elsewhere mumbai the city witnessed a drastic drop in registrations of autorickshaw with merely 4256 registered across four regional transport offices in apriljune of 2019 the figure is just 30 per cent of 14411 the number of autos registered during the same period in 2018while the spike in the 2018 numbers is attributed to defreezing of permits by the state government union leaders and transport experts point out that tough competition from ola and uber and now best will force many auto drivers to seek livelihood elsewhere advt in 2018 a total of 44264 autos were registered and though fresh permits are still available there isnt much of a demand an rto official said that once the government lifted the freeze on permits the backlog in permits was taken care of resulting in a sharp rise in numbers but now the situation has reversedan official said we earlier used to receive roughly 100 applications each day but this figure has gone down to around 5 to 10 applications per dayola and uber had already eaten into the business of autos plying long distances as these cabs offered the same services at a much cheaper rate along with providing greater comfort and now with best buses plying on share routes auto drivers will suffer even morethampi kurian an auto union leader pointed out that earlier a best bus would charge rs 15 to go from sainath in malad to malwani while a share auto would charge rs 20 per seat for the same distance the passenger would prefer an auto as by paying merely rs 5 extra she can cover the distance in 15 minutes while the bus would take double that time read alsoyou have to be 18 to ride ebikes in navi mumbaimumbai civic body to bail out best pay off rs 1200 crore loan dues now after the fare reduction the bus fare for the same distance is rs 5 kurian said a commuter now plans his journey and ends up saving rs 15 per leg of the journey by travelling in a bus this has massively hit business advt the auto and taxi fares have not been hiked for the past three years despite demands from the unions shrish deshpande chairman of mumbai grahak panchayat said while it is true that auto and taxi fares have not been hiked in three years we advised the government not to increase fares because of stiff competitiondesphande in a written application to the union leaders have urged them to rather reduce fares to remain in businessthe issuing of new permits for autos was frozen in november 1997 following directives from the union government the decision had affected cities such as mumbai nagpur pune and nashik which have population