Regulated and rationalised taxi fares and services this tourist season
Come September and Goa taxi fares and services will be regulated and rationalised. In what seems to be a landmark decision, the Ministry of Transport will formulate a system to regulate taxi fares after discussions with taxi operators.
Refuting any claims of app-based taxi services being allowed in Goa, Senior Officials in the Transport Ministry agreed that interests of customers needed to be safeguarded. While safeguarding customer interests, taxi-operators interests will be kept in mind, he stated.
Therefore, “We intend to give tourists and locals regulated taxi fares by next tourist season. We will start discussions with the taxi operators next month. In monsoons, tourist flow comes down and we can discuss and evolve a mechanism which can then start fully functioning by next tourist season,” said a senior official on condition of anonymity.
Of-late, complaints of taxi-drivers fleecing and intimidating customers while operating in an unregulated manner have increased. With over 8,000 tourist taxis in the State predominantly operated by locals.
Forming a sort of ‘mafia’, these cabbies were a force to reckon with. The government turned a blind eye to the menace for a good many years until recently when petitions to bring back Ola and Uber, app-based taxi services went viral on social media. Which caused the government to finally take a stand.
Coming out in support of the taxi-drivers, Vice-president of North Goa Tourist Taxi Operators’Association, Ravindra Vengurlekar, told The Hindu that this blanket accusation against the operators was highly unfair. A few black-sheep bring a bad name to any profession, he said. “We have ensured that such incidents are acted upon. We are in touch with MLAs and government to reassure them that taxi operations are conducted in a customer-friendly way,” Vengurlekar state.
Infomation credit: HT
