Team Herald
PANJIM: North Goa Tourist Taxi Owners Association (NGTTOA) is divided over the issue of installing digital taxi meters and global positioning systems (GPS) in their taxis.
The divisions were apparent a day after the meeting between representatives of the Taxi Union, the government and MLAs to deliberate on the issue of speed governors, digital meters and GPS, where the government had assured to work out a solution within two weeks after consulting with the Directorate of Transport.
NGTTOA held a general body meeting on Thursday to decide on the issue. While some taxi operators were agreeable to installing taxi meters and GPS but opposed speed governors, another group opposed the installation of the meters.
In a meeting on Wednesday, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had assured the taxi unions of a subsidy of up to 90 percent for the digital meters and GPS, the association general secretary Vinayak Nanoskar said.
He said that taxi operators in a meeting had asked the Chief Minister to release a fare chart based on the vehicles and their capacity.
Nanoskar said that a 15-member committee was formed on Thursday that will deal with the government on the issue.
Members at the meeting also raised the issue of the taxi meters already installed in almost 3000 cabs which have AGT permits, that are not been effectively implemented. Members said there is no proper fare chart to charge passengers.
“Members were of the opinion that the government streamline the existing meters already installed in the AGT and yellow black taxis,” a taxi operator said.
A numbers of issues were raised during the meeting at Calangute. The union was not able to take a firm decision on the issue.
