Delhiites will soon have a new medium to reach their destination as the Delhi Government announced a “City Taxi” service on Monday with fares fixed at `10/km. In this new scheme, small cars like Tata Nano and Reva could also be registered as taxis as the Government reduced the qualification for application from 750 cc engine to 600 cc.
Promising to issue the notification of the scheme in August itself, Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai said that with the launch of this scheme, not only comfortable last mile connectivity option will be made available to the commuters, but the scheme will also play a role in bringing down refusal complaints by auto-rickshaw drivers.
Amid questions about the safety of women in public transport in light of various cases of molestation including the Uber rape case, Rai said that this new service will make it mandatory to install safety features in the form of two buttons. “All taxis will have to install a panic button and a hooter button. By pressing the panic button, the police will be informed if the passenger is in any kind of danger. By pressing the hooter button, the taxi will start playing a siren which will alert any nearby people or vehicles that the passenger needs help,” said Rai.
The taxis are supposed to run on CNG and will also be fitted with GPS, said Rai adding that they will also be available through an app.
Announcing the scheme, Rai said that the taxis registered under the older schemes like Economy Taxi Scheme, 2010 will also be brought under the ambit of the new City Taxi Scheme, 2015.
Talking about the fare structure of the new smaller taxis between 600 cc to 749 cc, he said that while the minimum flag down rate of `25 will be charged for the first two km, same as auto rickshaws, every next km will be charged at `10 per km.
Talking about the objectives of the scheme, Rai said, “This scheme is expected to serve three main purposes. First, the complaints of refusal by auto-rickshaws will be brought down because people will have other affordable alternatives for commute. Second, we are hoping that the psychological barrier will also be removed for those who avoid public transport. If one can easily get a comfortable taxi after coming out of Metro station, they may be more willing to leave their cars at home,” he said.
“Third, this scheme will also provide employment to many more people who are not able to get an auto-rickshaw permit. Now they can apply for permit of taxi under this scheme,” he added.
Rai said that under the “City Taxi” scheme, one can apply for permit under the individual category, group category as well as in the capacity of an aggregator. “In group category, minimum fleet required by the applicant needs to be 200 and it could be a maximum of 2,500. While license fee for individual category will be `5,000, for group category, it will be `25,000,” said Rai.
The taxis under this scheme will be white in colour and will be allowed to post advertisements on both sides. They will have an lCD display on top to denote available or occupied status.
The Government also announced the launch of a rented motorcycle scheme for which licenses will be issued. Delhi residents as well as tourists will be able to hire these motorcycles which will be commercially registered.