Chennai: The state of affairs in the city is such that anyone with a few bucks can open a call taxi service; the state has no system in place to regulate or even keep a count of call taxi centers operating in the city. Coming close to the rape of a woman by the driver of a call taxi that she was travelling in Delhi, the transport department in the city has called for a meeting of all call taxi operators in the city on Wednesday.
Presently most call taxi companies in the city make a platform for owners of taxis to register themselves and run the vehicle under their brand name. There are no guidelines on how the model should work or the safety features that the taxi should have. Though in the recent past, police had asked call taxi owners to hire drivers only after getting a no objection certificate from the nearest police station, the unregulated sector leaves a plenty of space for erring drivers to thrive. Call taxi owners say that they do keep a tab of erring drivers and keep other owners too informed. But they add that erring drivers still have plenty of opportunities available at IT companies.
Transport commissioner Satyabrata Sahoo says, “We had called for the meeting before the incident. There are a number of call taxi operators in the city with different working models. Based on the high court order we will be looking into their concerns and ways to regulate this sector.” He adds that during the discussion on Wednesday with call taxi owners, safety aspects in the taxis and compliance to the Motor Vehicle Act will also be brought in.
Towards the end of last year there was a proposal sent to government from the transport department on ways to regulate the burgeoning call taxi sector in the city but till now there has been no movement on the same.Meanwhile NTL call taxi management in Chennai called for press meet in the city. According to officials of the company all their cars have a panic button installed in vehicle.
As opposed to the GPS mobile phone that the driver in the Delhi incident was carrying the vehicles in NTL are fit with physical GPS device which even when unplugged will work and send the headoffice the location of the vehicle. Manohar Sundar Das, safety and security head of the company, said, “ We ensure that all drivers have a police verification certificate. And also every time a driver starts the engine of the car he has to enter a password into the GPS which allows only the authorised driver to use the vehicle.”Manohar adds that the company has vigilance teams to look if drivers are following rules.
