The January 15 deadline for the city's taxis and autorickshaws to recalibrate their meters to reflect the new fares ended on Sunday, with at least 35% taxis and autorickshaws registered with different regional transport offices (RTOs) yet to get the job done.
Those taxi and autorickshaw operators who have not got their meters recalibrated will not be able to charge the revised fares and will have to charge only by the meter. They also face a fine of Rs 50 a day for the delay in calibration.
MMRTA had extended deadline to Jan 15
From October 1 last year, the minimum taxi fare was revised to Rs 28 from Rs 25 while the minimum auto fare was revised to Rs 23 from Rs 21.
At the time, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority (MMRTA) gave operators time till November 30 to get their meters recalibrated. When almost 60% of operators failed to do so by the deadline, the MMRTA extended it to January 15, 2023.
15k taxis yet to recaliberate meters
According to the state Transport Department, the meters of 15,595 of the 41,420 taxis in the city are yet to be recalibrated.
But AL Quadros, General Secretary of the Mumbai Taximen’s Union, the city’s oldest and biggest taxi union, said mostly those vehicles are left that are not plying.
The union said fewer than 30 000 taxis are operational. Similarly, of the total 1,38,377 autos registered with the Mumbai Eastern and Western RTOs, the meters of 87,777 were recalibrated till Friday.
Similarly, the Rickshaw Union's leadar Thampy Kurian said, "The transport authority has withdrawn the right of using tariff card now. Those rikshaw operators who have not calibrated the meters of their vehicles need to calibrate as soon as possible. Otherwise, they should be ready to pay fine at the rate of Rs 50 per day for the delay. Apart from that, from Monday, those rickshaw operators whose meters are not recalibrated will not be able to charge fare as per the revised rate."
Taxis, autos registered with RTO
Taxi registered with Mumbai Central RTO- 26738
Meter recalibration process completed -18259
Taxi registered with Mumbai Western RTO- 6418
Meter recalibration process completed -3400
Taxi registered with Mumbai Eastern RTO -8264
Meter recalibration process completed -4166
Auto registered with Mumbai Western RTO- 56009
Meter recalibration process completed -41088
Auto registered with Mumbai Eastern RTO- 82368
Meter recalibration process completed -46689
