Coronavirus outbreak and the pandemic has had an impact on several businesses and lives of daily wage earners. The transport system in Mumbai was also shut amidst the lockdown, and this has adversely affected the lives of rickshaw and taxi drivers. Earlier, the transport union had demanded an increase in fare and recently the department has proposed a hike of at least INR 2 for auto rickshaws and INR 3 for taxis.
This decision was taken as the officials stated that a fare hike has not been acknowledged for the last five years and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the conditions.
As per reports, the fare hike is expected to be discussed on Tuesday, December 22, and the matter is likely to be discussed at a meeting of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) Transport Authority. The plan proposed by the Khatua committee will be used for the rickshaw and taxi fare hike, and as the government has accepted the recommendation of this committee, discussions regarding the rent will also be made at the scheduled meeting.
Officials stated that the recommendations will include eight stages of concessions for taxis, four for rickshaws, 15 to 20 per cent concessions for the next phase of eight kilometres of black-and-yellow taxi service, permission to double fares, no increase in rickshaw-taxi fares in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) from midnight 12-5 am and other aspects.
Transport Commissioner, Avinash Dhakne, confirmed the same stating that the matter would be discussed at a meeting and a final decision will be taken by the committee, which will soon be announced.
Earlier, the fare was expected to increase in June based on the officials appointed by the government. However, this did not happen as planned. Currently. the minimum fare for the rickshaw is INR 18, while the base taxi fare is INR 22. If the proposed plan is approved, the rickshaw fare would increase by INR 2 and taxi fare by INR 3, after which the revised base fare would be INR 20 for auto and INR 25 for taxi.
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