The state transport department which isn't pleased with the way taxis have been operating in the city, put its foot down on Wednesday and asked taxi service operators to come up with a safety plan for passengers. If they don't comply by January 15 and some untoward incident occurs, that will result in the chief executive officer and managing director of the taxi company concerned being booked for criminal offence.
In a close door meeting the transport commissioner had with phone taxi fleet operators and such other operators, he asked them to submit the database of their drivers to the department by Thursday noon.
These operators will also have to submit a safety plan that each of them intend to implement, by December 31.
"The safety mechanism should be put in place by January 15. If any incident occurs till it is implemented, the CEO, MD, driver, taxi owner, operator, etc will be made accused in the case," said a senior transport official. In addition to this, the licences of the taxis, operators and drivers would be suspended.
The authorities have also asked private players to come up with a 'driver neutral GPRS system', in which the driver will not be able to manipulate the device. "GPS and GPRS can even be attached to the engine, and an alert will be send to the call centre if anyone tries to switch it off," added the official.
The other mechanism that can be installed is a 'panic button', which will sound an alert at the operator's back office.
On Tuesday, the Union home department had sent a circular asking state governments and union territories to prohibit all web-based taxi services. However, Maharashtra hasn't yet banned them. The operators involved are Ola, Uber, Cabzo and Taxi For Sure.
Despite banning Uber services in Delhi, the operator still continues to ply in the National Capital Region, it's learned.
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