Now, cabs & autos to have a panic button

In a bid to ensure safety of passengers, the Khatua Committee has made it mandatory for not only Ola, Uber and black and yellow cabs but also autorickshaws to have panic buttons installed. Apart from this, rooftop indicators should also be fitted in both taxis and autorickshaws so as to bring down cases of refusals.

To begin with, the committee has proposed GPS-based panic buttons to be installed in all black and yellow cabs, autorickshaws, city taxis that operate by mobile aggregators. This is to locate every public transport especially in times of an accident to locate the vehicle or help a passenger in distress when called on the helpline.

The report states that no new public transport vehicle should be issued permits by the RTOs without panic buttons. There are 1.39 lakh autorickshaws, 56,000 black and yellow taxis in Mumbai, and four lakh city taxis operating with Ola and Uber across Mumbai and it's Metropolitan Region.

This is for the first time that autorickshaws have too been roped in for having panic buttons which until now was mainly meant for mobile aggregators. The Khatua Committee has asked the current fleet to have these panic buttons installed within sixmonths.

Shailesh Sawlani, General Manager, Uber India, West said: "A preliminary reading of the report suggests that the Committee has made welcome strides in turning aside some of the contentious provisions of the proposed Maharashtra City Taxi Rules that directly impact thousands of driver partners on app based platforms.