Masks a must, no smoking or chewing gutka on commercial taxis: Govt

Ranchi: The state transport department on Tuesday came up with the standard operating procedures for resumption of services of commercial taxis for intra and inter-district movement outside containment zones. Taxi services was allowed to resume during Lockdown 4.0 by the state government on Monday.
State transport secretary K Ravi Kumar in his guidelines said a valid commercial permit will be deemed as a travel pass and there is no requirement to apply for anything. He clarified that taxi services will only be allowed for end-to-end journeys, which means no vehicle can stop in between to pick up passengers. “Taxis will not be allowed to take bookings on a shared basis,” Kumar said.
The department has also fixed the number of passengers allowed depending on the seating capacity of a vehicle. For a five-seater taxi, only two persons apart from the driver will be allowed. In six and seven-seater taxis, three persons, excluding the driver, will be permitted.
“All passengers must wear masks and there is a complete ban on smoking or consuming any kind of tobacco or gutka on board,” he said. Among other precautions, he said, vehicles will have to be sanitised every time before a passenger board. The luggage must be kept only in the boot and proper social distancing has to be maintained between people inside the vehicle.
Both drivers and passengers must keep a proper record of each other so that government can get the data in case of any requirement of contact tracing. “The driver should maintain records of all passengers in a proper format and keep it safely with him. Similarly, passengers should also have the basic details of the driver,” Kumar said.
While transporters welcomed the commencement of the services, they said customers will have to bear the extra cost to avail commercial taxis. Rajiv Kumar, a private cab operator at Station Road, said, “Unlike earlier times, customers will have to pay more due to reduced seating capacity, hike in diesel prices and extra expenses incurred to ensure hygiene inside the vehicles. We also appeal to customers to follow all the safety norms.”