Private taxis on the rise
Many vehicles ferrying students to schools do not sport yellow number plates
Taxis with private number plates are on the increase in the city. Instead of commercial number plates, many taxis used for transportation by schools and colleges have private number plates in areas like Bagh Amberpet DD Colony, 6th Crossroad in Amberpet, Barkatpura, Abids, Nallakunta and other areas of Greater Hyderabad limits, which is against the Motor Vehicle Act.
Cars bearing black lettering on a white background are private vehicles. These are used solely for private purposes and not for commercial use. Commercial vehicles such as trucks and taxis have a yellow number plate with black text. These vehicles can be used for commercial purposes. However, the driver of the vehicle must have a commercial driving permit.
Taxi drivers in the city who have commercial plates for their vehicles allege inaction by the Telangana transport department against use of illegal private number plates by taxi owners. Use of private number plates for commercial purposes leads to a huge loss for state RTOs as they lose the tax coming from commercial vehicles.
“Despite a huge increase in the number of taxis and cabs in Hyderabad city, many taxis and cabs are still moving around in the city with improper and private number plates but no action has been taken against them by the state transport department. Greater Hyderabad limit has about 80 colleges and 100 schools but RTOs are losing commercial taxes from the vehicles used by these schools and colleges for pick up and drop of students,” said Shaik Salauddin, president of Telangana State Four Wheelers Association.
He added: “Only 50 to 60 per cent of the commercial vehicles use commercial number plates and the rest ply in the city with private number plates. Parents should not send their children to schools and colleges in such vehicles which do not have commercial number plates and schools also should create awareness. We request the transport department to take action against those flouting rules.”
One of the parents, on the condition of anonymity, said, “Many drivers having commercial vehicles with private number plates use them to drop kids. They run like autos and charge economically compared to school buses. Parents prefer such private vehicles because they charge less than the school buses. They take less time and charge `10,000 and `12,000 per annum.”
Mr C Ramesh, Joint Transport Commissioner (IT Wing) said, “In 2017 we booked 324 cases of misuse of personal vehicles as commercial vehicles without proper number plates. `9.6 lakh fine amount was imposed on the 324 erring drivers. We have conducted special drives against misuse of personal vehicles this year as well and we will intensify the special drives to curb the misuse of commercial vehicles with private number plates’’.