Mumbai: Late-night commuters depend on these Rs 20-a-seat taxis to go home

Mumbai Taxi running Western Express Highway at Goregaon. (Express photo by Vasant Prabhu/ Representational)

ONCE THE last train heading north departs from Mumbai Central railway station and BEST buses go off the streets for a few hours, the only economical option available for late workers in that part of the city to reach home is a bunch of private taxi drivers parked outside the Haji Ali dargah.

The drivers, who share space on the waterfront outside a juice shop, charge as low as Rs 20 a seat to ferry passengers to the northern and eastern borders of the city and beyond.

Azhar Patel (27), who has recently purchased a Maruti Swift, usually parks his car at the juice shop by 1.30 am. By day, Patel works for a cab aggregator and switches off the driver’s app on his cellphone for the final couple hours of a 14-hour work day.

“I try to make just enough money for fuel for the drive home to Mira Road and a little bit for kharcha-paani. Most regulars get in the car at Haji Ali, and other passengers I find on the Western Express Highway,” he said.

Regular passengers include waiters, cooks, singers and dancers employed at hotels and bars heading home after work, and at times employees at private companies who miss the last train. “I ask passengers to pay whatever they can… A lot of times my passengers are drunk men coming out of bars with no money left,” Patel adds. Typical fares in these shared taxis do not rise above Rs 40 a seat.

Another driver, Ram Yadav, said: “My boss allows me to take one of his cars home. So, while returning home to Virar, I usually ferry hotel staffers.” Yadav, who belongs to Uttar Pradesh, had came to Mumbai 12 years ago. “After coming to the city, I worked at a cowshed for six years, Then I started driving autorickshaws. Later, when a friend offered me the job of a driver at a private company, I gave away the autorickshaw…,” he said.

“I earn around Rs 400 per night,” he added, describing a typical night.

Yadav doesn’t pick up passengers on the drive back home every night. “I have given my phone number to hotel employees in the area and whenever their vehicle is busy, they call me. If I am near Mumbai Central and also heading to Virar, I drop them. I usually only do this twice a week.”

Dinesh Kumar, is in his 40s, also stays in Virar. Most of his clients are call centre employees. Apart from ferrying home hotel workers, he picks up call centre employees between Andheri and Malad. “Many of my passengers stay in the northern suburbs… they either have no office transport or are eating late dinners on the highway,” he said.

Patel added that he doesn’t mind having passengers pay as per their own discretion. “After working for money during the day, this is a sort of service to help those working late and don’t have any other mean to reach home safe.”