Click to play videoMumbai: If you thought you could brave Mumbai's traffic in the cool comfort of an AC Taxi, you will have to wait a little longer. The plan to replace the city's ageing taxi fleet with hundreds of spanking new air-conditioned cabs has run into rough weather.
The Fullora Foundation, which was planning to put out 600 golden AC taxis, is now facing stiff opposition from the cabbies
"We hardly make Rs 200 a shift. If we have to pay Rs 160 out of that, what do we eat? Even if our union tells us to join we wont, the union should think about our welfare,” says a cabbie.
The foundation, which had, plans to make an investment of as much as Rs 300 crore has so far only managed to get a handful of cab drivers to agree to take on the new cabs.
"While its true they got 100 letters of consent, due to misrepresentation of the taxi unions some of the existing permit holders have withdrawn. Fullora is now left with only 30 taxies,” says Transport Secretary, Maharashtra Government, G S Gill.
The plan was to replace the cities ancient Premier Padminis with cars like the Indigo Marina, Maruti Esteem, Lancer or even Innovas with a starting fare of Rs 15 compared to the current Rs 13, but Fullora is not giving up so easily.
"We have already started services from the first of November and we hope to put all 600 cabs on the road by the New Year,” says a member of the Fullora Foundation.
So while Mumbai tries to taxi its way into a golden future, the decades old mechanical monsters will be there for some time to come.
(With Inputs from Arun Gopalakrishnan)
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