TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: South Goa Tourist Taxi Owners’ Association has come out openly against the proposal to run and operate Ola cabs in the state.
Association president Seby Fernandes said the introduction of Ola cabs is like rubbing salt on the wounds of taxi operators created by Lusofonia taxi contractor from Maharashtra. “The pattern and system mentioned is not feasible for a place like Goa. Local taxi operators were not taken into confidence before introducing such a taxi system, which is only feasible in metropolitan cities where commuters are in abundance”, Seby said.
He reminded that tourism was introduced in Goa to benefit the local economy, but operators are given free hand to conduct tours, while local taxi operators are tainted as black sheep of the tourism industry.
Association general secretary Uday Malvankar said Ola cabs were given license to operate in Goa without having any taxis of their own, while demanding to know why the local taxi operators were not taken into confidence if the system was intended to benefit the general tourists and the taxi operators. “The newly introduced system has to benefit general public along with local taxi operators. Hence such a system should be feasible and benefit the tourist and local Goan economy at large. We are self-employed tourist taxi operators attached to beach and starred hotels”, Malvankar stated.
