The Pune Regional Transport Office, in concert with the police, has launched a massive drive against unregistered cab drivers plying in the city, in the aftermath of the rape of a 27-year-old executive in New Delhi by a cab driver of Uber.
Flying squads have so far taken action against 43 private taxis in two days following stringent measures from the transport authorities in the city, touted as Maharashtra’s IT capital.
Taxis impounded
“A taxi each belonging to Meru and Taxi for Sure has been impounded. We have also penalized taxis belonged to Meru, OLA and Uber services as the driver in these cases had not followed proper security procedures,” additional Regional Transport Officer Sarjerao Pawar said.
Around 11,000 ‘radio taxis’ operate in the city, providing services to many private companies. Despite functioning for many years, security procedures are only now being activated despite the city being shaken by three high-profile rape offences involving cab drivers between 2007 and 2010.
In a meeting chaired by Police Commissioner Satish Mathur earlier this week, it transpired that most of the private taxis plying in the city did not have smart card licenses.
“Only a handful of cab drivers have completed their police verifications. In many cases, we discovered that character verifications were only done several years ago,” said Mr. Mathur.
Geo-fencing systems
Most city cabs were not equipped with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to be tracked from their central office, the police commissioner informed. The police commissioner has urgently stressed on installing geo-fencing systems in all city cabs.
The police are also mulling a system of compulsory badges with personal information akin to those provided to autorickshaw drivers.
In 2007, a 26-year-old executive working with Wipro BPO was raped and murdered. This was followed by the gruesome 2009 gangrape of a city-based software professional who was later brutally murdered in a forest 50 km from Pune by kingpin Yogesh Raut.
Meanwhile, all fleet and web-based taxi companies have been ordered to submit driver details to the Transport Commissioner. Transport officials have also directed cab operators to keep drivers away from service until their police check has been completed.
