Mumbai: Taxi and autorickshaw unions seek one more month to calibrate all meters

Mumbai: The city's rikshaw and black-and-yellow taxi drivers association claims that the recalibration of metres on approximately 30 percent of passenger-carrying vehicles, including both autorickshaws and taxis, has been completed, with the remaining vehicles requiring at least one more month to complete.

Earlier, the transport authorities had announced that they would implement revised fares on October 1 and had set November 30 as the deadline for the recalibration of metres on vehicles plyng in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

Under the Greater Mumbai region, around 44,000 black and yellow taxis are registered with different RTOs in the city.

Now metre recalibration is in full swing

"Now metre recalibration is in full swing; daily, hundreds of taxi metres are being recalibrated, but it seems tough to recalibrate all taxi metres till November. "Hence, we have already demanded the extension of the last date of metre calibration (November 30) fixed by the authorities," said AL Quadros, leader of the Mumbai Taximens Union.

Similarly, rikshaw union leader Thampy Kurian said, "Nearly 30 percent of rikshaw metres are calibrated, but we need at least one month to complete the task." Over 2.30 lakh autorickshaws are registered with different RTOs in Greater Mumbai.

No more fare revision

A source said that due to the recent hike in the price of CNG, several auto and taxi drivers are in confusion and they are pushing for another fare hike.

"As the rate of CNG has increased, several drives have inquired about one more fare revision." "The union has clearly told them that it's a rumor, don't believe it, and get the metre recalibration of their vehicles done as soon as possible," Thampy Kurian said, adding that the union plans to distribute pamphlets to educate drivers about the importance of metre recalibration.