In Chennai city, there is shortage of cab drivers now after deepavali
Posted on: 09/Nov/2018 9:52:20 AM
Recently deepavali was celebrated with huge happiness and excitement in the state of Tamil Nadu. Many cab drivers have gone to their native places to be with their families and relatives for this festival. Now deepavali is over and the news is the cab services in Chennai were hit by the shortage of drivers as these drivers have not yet returned back to Chennai.
As per Mr. Boopathy who is from Chennai Call Taxi Drivers Association affiliated to CITU or Centre of Indian Trade Unions, in Chennai in the year 2017, 200 cabs were available for every 100 passengers. He spoke about how in this year on deepavali only 70 cabs were available for every 100 passengers. It is clear that though the festive season got over the surge pricing remains.
He later threw light on the fact that for not paying the dues on time many vehicles were seized by the private financiers and bank owners ahead of the festive season. He added that as many as 73 cars were seized in the last one week in his locality. There were many complaints from the commuters that auto-rickshaws have been charging high fares utilizing the situation. A Nanganallur resident spoke about how the auto in which he travelled from the Alandur metro station charged Rs 150 as against the usual amount of Rs 80 to Rs 100. MTC or Metropolitan Transport Corporation has been operating additional buses and these buses came to the rescue of many residents.
As per a senior official belonging to MTC it is clear that in this deepavali season the revenue got was much higher when compared to the last year and it is 20 percent. There were many buses that were operated from CMBT in Koyambedu to Tambaram, Poonamallee etc and these buses recorded higher footfalls than usual. This was because of the fact that bus plying towards Hosur, Kumbakonam etc were allowed to pick and drop the passengers at the temporary bus stops in the above mentioned places. Notices have been issued by the state transport department to the 2325 private omni buses across TN for violating permit conditions and for non-payment of taxes etc.
As per an official belonging to the state transport department it is clear that in this festive season a special team was constituted to check the operations of omni buses and an amount of Rs 50.77 lakhs has been collected as fine amount for violating the rules.
