PRATIK PARAB
pratik@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: It first started off as a trickle and then grew with force and has slowly become a deluge as people are signing into the petition on change.org started by a group of Goans to have app-based networked taxis.
This is known. But there’s real change beyond the petition on the change.org platform. Across parts of Goa, sons and daughters of the soil, uncles and aunts, granddads and grand moms, are, for the first time, speaking of the need to tap a cab and get a taxi in far-flung villages by ordering on an app.
And that is the real change. This is not about whether radio cab majors like Uber and Ola should start plying in Goa. The voices that are emanating from rural Goa, is the need to be mobile without depending on relatives and friends or a fixed taxi person for errands and trips to town. With more disposal incomes and greater net connectivity, rural Goa’s needs are also changing. And the forced bus trips may well be a thing of the past, if radio cabs or app-based cabs are available, even if they are driven by the same local taxi man. And this is the X-factor of the big change, the need for a goenkarwadi app-based service, a system developed and run by Goenkars who understand the need and topography of the state.
Marsha Dias is an elderly lady who lives with her husband in a village in Quepem. Her children have studied in Goa and settled abroad. The couple has their own fixed rickshaw who they call when there is a medical emergency and also for the Sunday mass every week. “Last week the rickshaw did not turn up on Sunday as the person was not in town. We did not have any idea who to contact so we decided not to go for mass that day,” said Marsha.
She also explained how they have had to compromise on medical attention, not once but on several occasions, due to the unavailability of cabs or a transport system.
Similarly Sharmad Kamat, a businessman from Margao, sharing his experience said, “I have to attend several marriages and family functions keeping my work aside only because my parents can’t drive and that is ridiculous. I know how the network taxis function and it will be a boon for not only businessmen like me but also for the people who work 9 to 5.”
A person from Margao explained how he had chatted with a couple in a bus who were carrying an infant baby with them and tried to understand their ordeal of having no transport system. The man said that they came from a village from the northern borders of Goa and had to change four buses to reach GMC. The woman was forced to feed the infant in the open while travelling.
Roger D’Silva, a seaman, while speaking to Herald said, “I pay Rs 1800 for a flight from Bombay to Goa while coming for home for my holidays. But sadly I end up paying Rs 2000 for a taxi from the airport to my home in Velim. This is unfair.”
It’s clear, that it’s not just tourists, but Goans who now want to tap a cab.
