Mumbai : All radio cab drivers who are found without badges from Friday will lose their vehicles. The transport department made this clear during a meeting held on Thursday with all the cab operators in the city.
This was the second meeting held by the state transport commissioner following the Delhi rape. The department came across major violations by several radio cab drivers who operate without badges after the operators were instructed to submit the data of their drivers. It was then found that several operators such as Uber were unable to submit this data as none of their drivers had any badges.
Cab operators such as Ola, Meru Plus, Uber and Taxi for Sure who operate with drivers without a badge were instructed to get it in the next 24 hours otherwise their vehicles would be seized.
An operator present during the meeting said, “Just because they have a license to use their vehicle as a cab does not give them the leeway to hire drivers without public badges, we were told by the transport department.”
The department further warned these operators stating that these drivers running without a badge contribute to merely 4,000 of the total taxi drivers in the city. Taking these vehicles off road will not affect the transportation in the city in a big way.
While the license operators such as Meru, Bookmycab, Tab Cab and Easy Cab were asked to incorporate stringent measures to insure safety of the commuters. They have been asked to install ‘SOS’ and ‘Panic Button’ so that the commuter can alert the authority in case of a crisis. They have been asked to install Global Positioning System (GPS) in the vehicle which cannot be switched off by driver of the vehicle. In case the GPS of the vehicle goes off, the police will be alerted immediately.
Transport Commissioner, Mahesh Zhagade said, “It was a routine meeting with the operators and we are taking necessary measure to improve the security of the commuters.”
On the other hand, the traffic police has started registering the details of the cabs in which women passengers travel by from six different terminals from across the city. The records of 26,000 fleet taxi drivers have been searched for criminal records.
