Chennai call taxis under police scanner

CHENNAI: In the light of the rape of a 27-year-old woman involving the driver of a call taxi operator in Delhi, Chennai Police has tightened its restrictions on call taxi operators, police sources said.

Random checks are being done on moving call taxis in various parts of the city, especially after evening and the details of the driver are being verified, they said.

Few days back, senior officials of the Chennai Police had convened a meeting with owners and operators of call taxis in the state, where they were given a list of requirements, while hiring drivers, employees and operating call taxis, they said.

Call taxi operations are on the rise in Chennai, as it houses thousands of IT and allied services companies in and around the city functioning round the clock, requiring their employees to be transported at odd hours from remote locations, police said.

The need has further risen since the traffic of auto rickshaws in the city has come down, since the police is strict in implementing metered fare for hire, they said.

Many peope were preferring call taxis while travelling in groups, since there was a fixed charge for call taxis. Though it was mandatory for auto drivers to go by meter, some were not doing so, when they were not being monitored by police during odd hours and in locations out of city, the sources said.

Meanwhile, call taxi giant NTL today asserted that all safety and security arrangements were in place as it operated over 2,700 vehicles on road.

Director-HR and Administration M C Barathkumar told a press conference here that there were at least 10 employees in the vigilance section in each of the shifts to monitor the movement of NTL fleet of 2,768 vehicles.

"Since we are a call taxi operator who has a physical GPS installed in each of our vehicles in the fleet, tracking the vehicles and tracing the movement of the vehicle in very easy compared to other service providers," he said.