Govt logs out of app proposal for taxis

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has shelved its plan to develop a mobile phone application that would allow users to book regular black and yellow taxis and auto rickshaws. A senior officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mumbai’s taxi unions were not keen to take the responsibility of running this app.

In 2017, the chief minister’s office had invited leaders of major taxi and auto rickshaw unions to discuss and develop an app that could compete with the app-based cab services of Ola and Uber. Ideally, the app would also benefit users because it would prevent refusals and over-pricing by drivers. State transport officials had planned to develop the app and then hand over its operation to the taxi unions. The unions met in June 2017 and most of them, at the time, supported the idea.

“The government was ready to develop the app, but being a regulator, it didn’t want to run it. The unions were asked to come forward, but they kept fighting between themselves and none of them showed interest in running it,” said the officer.

According to officers, in its report on taxi-auto rickshaw fare formula submitted in October 2017, the four-member Khatua panel led by former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer BC Khatua had also suggested that the government should not develop an app for black and yellow taxis.

Veteran taxi union leader AL Quadros said that there had been two attempts to launch apps to book taxis — in 2015 and 2017 — and on both occasions, they had received a poor response from passengers as well as cabbies. “The passengers hardly hail black and yellow cabs for long distance journeys as Ola and Uber have affected their business. On shorter routes, the passengers are less likely to go for booking cabs through the app,” said Quadros.

The state transport department, however, said that the unions’ decision may be shortsighted. Currently, taxis and auto rickshaws are mostly used as an intermediate mode of transport and for last mile connectivity. Mumbai has over 1.5 lakh auto rickshaws and more than 50 thousand taxis