The city of Ahmedabad has now got the service called ‘G-Autos’, which is about a safe auto rickshaw service with on board facilities such as reading stuff and communication. Initially 100 ‘G-Autos’ would be on road.

Launched by the chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi at Khokhra the G-Autos service includes an English-speaking driver, a phone, a map of the city and list of must-see places, dustbins, FM Radio, clean drinking water and range of newspapers and magazines to browse through.

Chief Minister on this occassion himself sat inside the rickshaw. Speaking at the occasion he said that “there can be an advertisement on auto driver’s dress. This can be an added source of income too.”

G-Autos is the initiative taken by Niramal Kumar, a past student from the 2007 batch of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and owner of Nirmal Foundation.

Nirmal has initiated hospitality training for drivers that include ability of speaking 50 basic sentences in English. A customised dictionary with Gujarati words and their English equivalents would be prepared.

G-auto drivers will be given insurance cover of $4,000 (Rs 200,000), medical cover of $1,000 (Rs 50,000) and a monthly sum for school fees for their children, and will have a bank account with debit cards too. A pension plan will also be introduced for these drivers, whereby they will have to save Rs15 per day.