PANAJI
The Transport Department is on a mission of giving an image makeover to the taxi service at the Manohar International Airport, Mopa. In a surprising move on Thursday, the Department published a public notice proposing blue-coloured taxis to ferry the GOX passengers.
With tourists very often taking to social media to narrate their ordeal while dealing with the traditional yellow-black taxi drivers in Goa, Director Rajan Satardekar asserted that they won’t allow any such menace to affect the transport system at Mopa.
“We want to create a perception that Goa offers quality service to our visitors with warm, welcoming, hospitable and helpful taxi drivers. Negative feedback from customers has been repelling people away and this has affected the brand. We want to transform the image at the new airport,” he said while speaking to The Goan.
Tourist taxi operators have always been in controversy for their brash behaviour, manhandling of tourists and overcharging fares. Seeking to strike a direct deal with the passengers and opposing the app-based aggregators to continue their monopoly over the business have more often than not led to differences between the taxi operators and the government.
On Monday, the government agreed to set up a pre-paid yellow-black taxi counter at the world-class facility with a rider that the counter will be exclusively for the Pernem taxi operators. Three days later, the department decided to protect its brand and focus on passenger experience citing that a company re-launches its brand if it becomes unacceptable in the market.
“The yellow-black taxis have in the past affected Goa’s warmth and hospitable image. We don’t want our visitors including local passengers to feel stressed while en route to their destination. We, therefore, decided to change the colour code,” Satardekar further said.
