PANAJI
Urging his colleagues not to be protectors of tourist taxi operations, the Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho on Tuesday in stern words warned to cancel the taxi permits of all those vehicles that fail to install digital meters and vehicle location tracking (VLT) devices in a time bound manner.
Godinho also said that the government will soon be launching a multimodal transport aggregator app that will help people choose among multiple public modes of transport for last mile connectivity.
“Protectionism is something that MLAs need to stop. I am not saying I am getting Ola and Uber. Are we going to move ahead with cheap transport to the people of Goa or are we getting swayed away with these 6000 or 8000 taxi operators? I also consider them as ambassadors of tourism. We need to protect them but not to the extent that we kill the goose that lays the golden eggs (tourism),” Godinho said while speaking during the Transport demands.
Godinho said that the Union Road transport ministry has made it mandatory to fit VLT devices and emergency buttons under Rule 125 (H) of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 and the digital meters are mandatory as per the High Court order.
“ If the taxi people so desire, they can go to court and ask for relaxation. State government has no powers to relax this decision. I remember giving taxi operators lots of exemption from taxes and other concessions but now they will have to pay it,” Godinho said as several MLAs from ruling and opposition benches urged the government to look into the taxi issue with regard to meters and VTL devices.
The Minister said that the taxi operators will have to pay annual maintenance charges Rs 2894, yearly data charges of Rs 1050 and 710 are other charges, which comes to total Rs 4654.
“If they don’t pay the charges, the data functioning will become inactive.They need to renew the system. We are only implementing the order. This is just a new excuse for taxi operators not to use the meters…and this would amount to contempt of Court. If they don’t renew and if they don’t ply with meter
We will have no option except to cancel the taxi permits,” he said.
The Minister said that he is surprised to see MLAs coming forward with the request of taxi operators. "I am not going to bend down…I am Minister of Goa and not one constituency …they have to follow discipline …I may be called bad but I can’t help it,” he said.
Under the ambitious Goencho Taxi Patrao scheme, Godinho said that 100 youths will be provided employment as they will be handed over with taxi cars under the scheme on Wednesday.
Replying to the concern raised by the MLAs, cutting across party lines with regards to shortage of buses, Godinho admitted that the State is currently facing a shortage of 250 buses. He also said that another 100 KTC buses will go off road, as they are above 15 years old.
He lamented that there are not many takers for Mhaji Bus scheme. “ However despite this, we will be launching the scheme soon across Goa as against the initial plan of introducing it only on three routes. the decision will be taken in subsequent cabinet as it involves financial implication,” he said.
Godinho announced that by December, the State will get 99 electric buses and another 48 e-buses under Smart City Mission.
He also announced to amend the Act to increase the application period from six months to one year to allow the families of road accident victims to avail the benefits of Goa State Interim Compensation scheme.
As demands raised by the MLAs for modern bus stands, the Minister said that the Union Road Transport Ministry will have a PPP tie up with Goa government to develop all the bus stops into bus port and it would be a revenue sharing model. He said on priority Mapusa, Panaji and Margao bus stands will be taken up.
