PANAJI: Warning tourist taxi operators who are scheduled to go on strike on Friday, Goa
Tourism Development Corporation (
GTDC) chairman
Nilesh Cabral said the government would consider introducing app-based Ola and Uber-like services.
"If this continues, I will personally press the chief minister to begin Ola and Uber-like services with the involvement of other people," he told mediapersons on Thursday.
"The government cannot bow down every time and allow the name of the state to be spoilt by a small, petty issue, when it has spent crores of rupees to build up Goa's reputation," he said while addressing reporters on Thursday.
The GTDC chairman claimed that the government had always supported tourist taxi operators and had even chosen not to introduce app-based taxi services in a bid to allow them to earn, "but tomorrow, if this is going to be the system, the competition should be open to anyone and everyone."
Cabral said he had concrete evidence that people have been overcharged by taxi operators, even claiming to have a receipt of a tourist who was charged Rs 8,000 for a trip from Varca to
Bicholim during peak tourist season. "I don't want to share them right now," he said.
Appealing to the tourist taxi operators to call off their strike, the GTDC chairman said the government was willing to listen to their grievances.
All commercial vehicles, including KTC buses, have had speed governors installed,
Kadamba Transport Corporation chairman
Carlos Almeida, said. "It is a central subject and cannot be changed at all. Goa is already getting a bad image over the taxi issue. We should not kill the golden goose," he added.
Representative Image
