Mumbaikars brace yourself, as commuters are likely to face a shortage of black-and-yellow taxis on polling day that is April 29. The Election Commission has requisitioned 1,300 black-and-yellow taxis for elections duty on April 29.
According to Mumbai Mirror, the EC will use these taxis to ferry government staff and equipments. Out of 1,300 kaali-peelis, 500 will be deployed in the Island city, while the remaining 800 will be used in suburbs. The cab drivers will be paid Rs 2,012 for 24 hours of election duty. AL Quadros, general secretary, Mumbai Taximen Union told the leading daily, “Though we demanded Rs 2,400 from the authorities for our services, they only agreed to pay around Rs 2,000. We will be offering our services at a loss, but since our taxis are being requisitioned for a national cause, we don’t mind.”
The state government officials have said that this won’t impact much to commuters as nowadays a large number of people use smartphones and taxi-booking apps. In Mumbai, around 40,000 black-and-yellow taxis are there, out of which at any given time 40 percent are on road. But as its summer time, most of them return to native places, which is why the percentage drops drastically.