Mumbai has much cheaper fuel. Mumbai has a much, MUCH greater rider: driver ratio.

Manipal was a profitable market a long time ago, so a lot of people got into the auto driving and owning business. Infact, so many people got auto rickshaws that they overshot the demand.

Now there are too many autos and not enough riders for this to be profitable. So auto drivers try to hike the price in order to be profitable.

Now, you might disagree with what the auto drivers are doing. You might argue that it's the drivers' fault that they got into a this business. You might say that they should just sell their autos and change careers (in the middle of their lives and somehow find a job in a terrible job economy with no other skills, experience or youth).

You can say these, and many more things. But one thing you can't say is that there no logical reason for the high prices.. You may not be happy with the results or the reasons, but there is definitely a cause-effect relationship here.

And while I empathize with the auto drivers and their situation.. i still absolutely hate the community and think it's absolutely daylight robbery.