Goa moves to rationalise taxi fares

Panaji: With pressure mounting, the Goa government will take up the touchy issue of regulation and rationalisation of taxi fares next month.

Senior officials in the Transport Ministry on Tuesday ruled out any contact with app-based taxi aggregator Ola to restart operations in the coastal State.

Officials in the Ministry agree that there was a need to give customers, who are routinely charged exorbitant fares, a fair option, while also safeguarding the interests of the local taxi-owner community.

“We intend to give tourists and locals regulated taxi fares by next tourist season. We will start discussions with the taxi operators next month. In monsoons, tourist flow comes down and we can discuss and evolve a mechanism which can then start fully functioning by next tourist season,” said a senior official on condition of anonymity.

Over 8,000 tourist taxis in the State are predominantly operated by locals. However, of late there have been accusations of taxi drivers over-charging, intimidating and operating in an unregulated environment. Even campaigns against “fleecing by taxis in Goa” have become viral on social media with signature campaigns seeking the State’s intervention to get in app-based taxi services.

The vice-president of North Goa Tourist Taxi Operators’Association, Ravindra Vengurlekar, told

The Hindu that this blanket accusation against the operators was highly unfair. A few black-sheep bring bad name to any profession, he said.

“We have ensured that such incidents are acted upon. We are in touch with MLAs and government to reassure them that taxi operations are conducted in a customer-friendly way,” he said.