PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa adjourned to March 5, the hearing in the petition filed by the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa seeking implementation of meters for taxis operating in the State after the State government told the court that there was no response to the first tender it had floated.
When the case came up for hearing, Advocate General told the Court that they had floated a tender, but since there were no bidders, the State government has held discussions with possible bidders regarding the technical specifications of the tender and that the process for issuing a fresh tender was on.
The possible suppliers have sought relaxation in certain terms and conditions laid out by the government in the first tender.
With the TTAG agreeing to adjourn the matter, the case was adjourned to March 5.
The TTAG had approached the court citing the fact that arbitrary rates charged by tourist taxis were affecting Goa’s image as a tourist destination threatening their businesses and that the State government was doing nothing about it.
The case was filed back in 2016.
It may be recalled that the government has told the Bombay High Court at Goa that it would float tenders seeking suppliers for digital taxi meters fitted with GPS and printers.
Goa Electronics Limited had sent a draft for the purpose of floating Expression of Interest and the Government was in process of finalising the same.
The government had told the court that implementation of the order making taxi meters compulsory would be implemented “after (the) Department of Transport finalizes the standards of the type of Digital Meters with GPS and printers to be fixed in the taxis with the approval of State Transport Authority and Government of Goa in consultation with Department of Weights and Measures (legal metrology) and after all technical modalities in this regard are finalised.”
The Bombay High Court at Goa had asked the State Government to issue an order mandating compulsory digital taxi metres as the issue has been “pending for some time and a policy decision is already taken.”
“What we are shown are the internal notings from the file. Since the issue is pending for some time and policy decision is already taken, we expect that the formal order can now be passed for which longer time is not required. All it requires is an order since now no impediments remain. The order can indicate that the time schedule will be fixed subsequently,” the High Court had said.
Installation of taxi meters has been a contentious issue with taxi operators showing no concrete signs that they will accede to the law and install the meters and have instead offered their own sets of vague demands to the government as a ‘condition’ before they can install meters.
