Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho on Friday said the government has given 15-day additional time to taxi owners for fitting digital meters whose deadline has already elapsed. Godinho stated that taxi operators are the ambassador of tourism and therefore he has decided to give concession to non-complying taxi owners to fit meters.
He also appealed to the taxi owners to fix the digital meters and comply with the high court directive on the digital meters. He said that the transport department will take an undertaking from the taxi owners that they will fit the digital meters in their vehicles. “These taxi operators will have to give in writing that they will fit digital meters,” said Godinho.
Earlier, the Minister on Wednesday had warned that permits of nearly 3000 non-complying taxi operators whose registration numbers ending with 0 or 1 will be cancelled as they had failed to fit meters with the given time.
Currently, there are 3,584 vehicles registered under 0 and 1 series, of which only 137 taxi owners have got the digital meters fitted and 513 others have booked slots for fitting them. However, as many as 2,934 taxis in the series have defied the directives issued to them on the orders of the Bombay High Court.