MUMBAI: Mumbai will soon see more number of taxis on the roads as the transport department has decide to allot 7,800 taxi permits on Saturday.
The lottery will be held in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at 5 pm on Saturday. The lottery draw proceedings will be telecasted lives at all the RTOs in Mumbai.
The permits has been distributed across all the Regional Transport Offices in Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Transport Authority (MMRTA) region, which includes Thane and Navi Mumbai also.
One the important condition for those getting the permit is that that they will have to ply brand new taxis. Earlier, one could use a second-hand car for a new permit.
The conditions also include that the applicant should have no crime record for a year, and should be willing to install GPS/GPRS as and when asked by the transport department. The person should not have had a crime record too.
AL Quadros, general secretary of Mumbai Taximen’s union, “The new taxis are expected to hit the road by January 2015.”
Apart form 7,843 taxi permits that whose draw will be announced today, the transport department has also put on offer 7,500 odd permits to fleet taxi operators since January.
Quadros said, “We are going to oppose the allotment of taxis to fleet taxi operators. It should be given to residents of Mumbai only.”
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