Drivers allege though the geographic spread of the capital has been expanding exponentially, the data of different locations in the city being used by pre-paid booths are not being updated accordingly.
“The fare at pre-paid booths is fixed as per the record of a distance of any place maintained in their data bank. They are using old data, which does not have the records of new colonies in far-off places,” said Rajendra Soni, president of Bhartiya Private Transport Mazdoor Mahasangh.
They incur losses due to lack of updated records; therefore, many drivers are not willing to render their services, he said.
However, the traffic department contends that though it was difficult to have a record of every inch of the capital, they update the records every three months.
“The latest survey is used to update the records. We use the conventional method of grouping the places as per their average distance from stations. However, I would still update myself as to when was the last survey done,” said Satyendra Garg, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic).
Moreover, taxi drivers want pre-paid booths to provide a valid permit to get into the satellite towns like Ghaziabad, Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad.
“You can take a pre-paid taxi from the IGI airport for any location in NCR. We have been demanding a similar service at railway stations, but to no avail,” said Rakesh Kumar, a taxi driver.
“I will look into the issue. But other issues like valid permit to drive into the NCR are also involved for providing such services,” said Garg.
Contrary to the contentions of auto drivers, Garg added, he had come across several people complaining that they found the pre-paid service costlier. “The traffic department has devised a mechanism that takes care of the interest of both the commuters and the auto drivers.”
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