Team Herald
PANJIM: A day after the Goa government launched its ambitious taxi app ‘Goamiles’ amidst discontent and opposition from a section of tourist taxi operators, the stakeholders are hopeful such an initiative will not see a rift between tourist passengers and the cabbies over the fares and quality of service.
North Goa Tourist Taxi Association, that had earlier vehemently opposed the initiative, has decided to review the response and to later decide their further course of action.
The association President Vinayak Nanoskar has said they have decided to wait and watch the response of the app. He has also expressed his confidence that such facility does not have any future in the State. However, the association intends to start it’s own app in a bid to give a competition to the newly-started Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) -run app.
While the Centre For Responsible Tourist has shown it’s support precisely because the move will curb ugly fights between passengers and the taxi drivers.
“We were always for an app because it will bring in transparency into the transport service. Due to some tourist taxi operators (indulging in cheating passengers), the entire association has earned a bad name. This app can change things for good,” CRT’s general secretary Fr Freddy Braganza said.
He has however expressed uncertainty whether government consulted stakeholders like taxi operators while designing the app. “We ourselves have not seen the app,” he added claiming they are always with taxi operators.
Consumer rights activist Roland Martins had hailed the introduction of a bee technology claiming it would give birth to more such apps in future.
“It is a good step as even the Taxi Associations or other private players can come up with a similar app. Consumers have the “Right to Choice” and if there are multiple choices it is good because people want to have the best tariff, service and comfort. There should also be competition and with this kind of a technological advantage,” he said.
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Teething problems galore
While the Goa miles app has reached 12,000 downloads on day-one of its launch, the Transport Department has encountered teething problems. Sources said that two problems – non-literacy among taxi drivers to use the app and in sufficient data, were noticed. However, despite these problems, as many as 350 trips were recorded in Tuesday.
“More awareness on the use of the app is important, and literacy among the taxi drivers most of whom hate using the Android phones for the first time. There have been instances wherein some taxi drivers have by mistake cancelled trips by clicking at wrong keys on the phone,” said an official. Moreover, the data was also an issue which the department said would correct at the earliest.
Despite these problems, the Goamiles app recorded 350 trips wherein the taxi drivers were also able to get return trips. Director Nikhil Desai when contacted said the initial hiccups will be rectified within a fortnight while also booking a cab will be done in 5 minutes from October.
