With the Supreme Court’s ban on petrol and diesel-run taxis coming into effect, 27,000 cabs stopped plying in the Capital on Sunday. As a large number of taxis stayed off the roads, commuters felt the heat as they found it difficult to book a CNG-driven yellow-top taxi and were forced to switch to auto-rickshaws. The problem is expected to peak on Monday, the first working day after the imposition of restriction.
According to Delhi Transport Department, about 60,000 taxis are registered in the national Capital and of which, 27,000 were running on diesel. Around 2,000 taxis had converted into CNG mode in the last two months.
With the SC ban in force, authorities are cracking whip on violators. “Instructions have been issued to concerned authorities, including Transport Department, to impound diesel-run taxis plying in Delhi-NCR,” said a senior official.
Amit Gupta, an IT professional, said that the problem of non-availability of cabs was even worse than during the odd-even period. “When the Government had banned surge pricing by app-based cabs, there was a serious shortage of cabs and it used to take a long time before we could book a cab on the app.
But today (Sunday) I kept checking the app for almost an hour and still couldn’t book a car. I had to look for an auto,” he said.
The Supreme Court had on Saturday refused to extend the April 30 deadline fixed for the non-CNG taxis for their conversion into CNG mode.
Meanwhile, cab operators termed the apex court’s decision tyrannical, saying if the decision was not changed then it will lead many of them to commit suicide. Also, claiming that almost half the taxis were run on diesel in the national Capital, they said that they have decided to launch a protest after “mutual consultations”.
S Kumar, owner of Kumar Taxi Services in central Delhi, said that he had to cancel many bookings on Sunday as most of his cabs run on diesel. He said the apex court decision will lead many taxi operators to commit suicide as they won’t be able to pay their car installments now. “How do we pay our monthly installments to banks for the loans taken to buy taxisIJ Does not the Government realise that diesel cars can’t be converted into CNGIJ” he asked.
Another cab operator said that it would have been better if the order would have been applicable to diesel taxis after their ongoing permit got over as it would have given some time to the operators to arrange for alternative taxis.
The SC order is not applicable on cabs having All India Permits but most of the diesel cabs ply on local routes. The ban will essentially bring down the availability of cabs in the capital.
“As per rule, taxis having All India permit are required to cover a distance of around 200 km. Taxis having All India permits cannot ply from one point to other point inside Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad,” the official said. Cabs going off roads may inconvenience thousands of commuters as many diesel taxis ferry people from Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad.
“We can’t keep on extending the time. We are not extending it now and not going to make any exceptions. There is technology available, you convert,” a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur had yesterday said while rejecting the plea that it would affect livelihood of poor drivers. The bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi, had on March 31, extended the deadline till April 30 for conversion of all diesel taxis to CNG.