Private vehicles plying as taxis in the State capital are not only posing threat to the security of passengers, but also incurring loss of huge revenue to the Transport department.
Official sources said that there are around 3,000 private taxis operating in Bhopal and only 250 are registered a taxis with the Transport department. Around 150 travel agencies providing taxi services are operational in the city but surprisingly less than 10 per cent of them are in possession of taxi permit.
Regional Transport Officer Bhopal Ajay Gupta said that the regional transport office (RTO) has made its preparation to take action against the illegal travel agencies and their registered taxi permits which are plying on the city roads. In terms of losses apart from the major factor of safety and security of passengers, RTO suffers revenue loss as it has been observed that private vehicles are used as taxis which results in revenue losses to the RTO. Besides fulfilling several guidelines, one needs to pay Rs 1,500 for getting his vehicle registered as a taxi, he added.
Factually, the RTO is not able to track and monitor such irregularities in plying of taxis, in want of updated records of these taxi operators. The travel agents benefit from the system as they charge arbitrarily and the passengers have to bear it. Assistant Regional Transport Officer of Bhopal Sanjay Tiwari said that under the Motor Vehicle Act, the taxi operators have to obtain license from RTO after which only they could start their services and there are terms and conditions which the taxi operators have to fulfil after which the license is issued to taxi operator service provider.
Under the terms of licensed taxi, the operator should have own parking space for parking the taxis. The taxi operator should own an office which should have sitting arrangement for passengers and presence of first aid box in the vehicle. The taxi should be registered with the RTO as commercial taxi, taxi should have meter indicating the requirements of readings kilometers and respective charge, he added.
The taxi operator should also have prior experience of operating taxis for proper management and to provide better services to the passengers.