According to Rao, Joshi informed the union representatives present that a decision had recently been taken by the state cabinet to withdraw the power of the Regional Transport Authority to fix fares. The new fares would be fixed by the transport ministry in consultation with the union in a joint meeting on Saturday morning.

In case of further conflict regarding fixing of fares, Joshi himself would convene a meeting on Saturday afternoon to resolve the issue. The new fares would be made applicable from Sunday.

Earlier in the day, nearly one lakh autorickshaws went off the roads today demanding a raise in the minimum fare from Rs 7 to Rs 8.50. The strike was near total in the suburbs, though it did not have much effect in neighbouring areas like Thane and Navi Mumbai.

Though the autos were off the road, passengertraffic in the city was not affected a great deal due to the presence of buses and taxis. However, trains on the Western Railway experienced rush beyond Bandra, and those on the Central Railway were crowded between Sion and Mulund.

Meanwhile, the BEST put out 200 more buses in the suburbs to deal with the auto strike. A spokesperson informed the undertaking plied 65 buses in the western suburbs, 68 in central and 30 in the eastern suburbs, besides introducing services as and when required. These buses were in addition to the 2,800 buses that the undertaking runs daily.

Taxis transported commuters on share-a-seat basis in places like Borivli, Kandivli, Jogeshwari, Santacruz, Bandra, Vikhroli, Mulund, Ghatkopar and Kurla to the nearby housing colonies and industrial estates, charging Rs 5-Rs 7 per person. The Bombay Taximen's Union secretary A C Quadros said they had taken this step to alleviate commuter woes arising from absence of autos on the roads.

Supriya Prabhu, UTI bank employee and resident ofShanti Ashram, Borivli (west), did not know of the strike until she was asked to pay Rs 5 by an autodriver for dropping her off to Borivli station.

``In any case we spend Rs 3 every day for share-a-rickshaw, so we didn't mind spending that much,'' she said.

Autos were also seen plying in areas like Vile Parle and Santacruz. Thane and Navi Mumbai remained free from the strike, even though the union had called for a state-wide agitation.

The automen's strike followed the state government's move to hike petrol prices from Rs 27.07 to Rs 27.96 per litre. According to the union, the nearly one lakh auto drivers in Mumbai were incurring an extra monthly expenditure of Rs 750.

But the absence of active support from taximen does not seem to have gone down well with the autodrivers. Though the Mumbai Autorickshaw Union leader Shankar Salvi ruled out any hostility between the unions, a majority of autodrivers felt the taximen were taking undue advantage of the situation.Salvi himself remarked that the taximenwould not feel the pinch since nearly 90 per cent of the 48,000-odd taxis in the city run on either compressed natural gas (CNG) or diesel. ``They get CNG for nearly Rs 7.5 per litre and diesel for around Rs 13 per litre, but their tariff card is based on petrol,'' he said.

Quadros countered these allegations, claiming that the maintenance costs of the diesel taxis was three times more than that of petrol-run vehicles and the fact that there are only eight CNG distribution centres in the city warranted the rate. ``It is a fight for survival, nothing less,'' he said.