The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Commuters at Central taken for a ride

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 13, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Commuters at Central taken for a ride

Karthik Subramanian

Unauthorised agents and touts defeat the purpose of pre-paid call-taxi service

DWINDLING PATRONAGE: Passengers arriving at the Chennai Central Railway Station have to contend with haggling, with the pre-paid call-taxi system there falling a prey to touts. — Photo:: R. Ragu.

CHENNAI : The pre-paid call-taxi service at the Central Railway Station, launched two months ago with the promise of a haggle-free ride for commuters, has fallen a prey to touts.

Passengers arriving at the station do not even get a chance to notice the stand, which is located next to the Moore Market Reservation Complex.

Several unauthorised call-taxi drivers and agents, who charge arbitrarily, sometimes at the rate of over Rs.15 per km, swarm them.

Ravi and Brothers, the company that won the Southern Railway contract for setting up the call-taxi stand, had fixed a minimum fare of Rs.100 for the first 6 km and Rs.12 for every subsequent km.

Call-taxis have become a preferred mode of transport for passengers arriving at the station in groups.

Passengers with substantial luggages also prefer call-taxis to autorickshaws.

According to some operators, call-taxis make more than 700 trips out of Central every day.

But the haggling by the unauthorised operators has left a bad taste in mouth for several passengers.

A commuter's experience

N. Priya, who arrived from Bangalore in Brindavan Express on Saturday night, paid Rs.200 for a trip to Anna Nagar. She was shocked that the call-taxi driver just whisked away her luggage from a porter. "I did not even know why I was paying Rs.200 because no bill was given and I could not calculate the `per-km' charges.

When I asked the driver, he just said this was how things worked in Chennai," she said.

Parking space usurped

The unauthorised call-taxis also occupy the parking space meant for visitors' cars. This happens despite the presence of a railway police station on the Central station premises. N. Shantakumar of Ravi and Brothers said the firm had paid around Rs.18 lakh for the contract to run the pre-paid call-taxi stand. They also spent nearly Rs.1.25 lakh towards operational and maintenance costs every month.

"We estimated around 700 trips a day but are able to make only 300 trips. The touts are operating right in front of the railway police and us. ," he added.

Ravi and Brothers have complained to the Division Railway Manager and also the senior railway police authorities.

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