Taxis show green, autos red to indicators

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All 32,000 taxis that ply in Mumbai have agreed to bear indicators on top of its hood reflecting if they are available or not. There will be three signs on these boards — green will indicate that the taxi is available, a pink signal will indicate that the taxi is engaged and white signal will indicate that the taxi is off duty.
However, autorickshaw drivers are refusing to follow the move, saying fixing the boards atop of the rickshaws is neither practical nor essential.
Transport officials, however, want a proper feedback from the members of the taxi board. “We have plans to install such boards compulsorily in all commercial vehicles though we will like to see indicators fixed in taxis, and then we will take decide on autos,” said a transport official on the condition of anonymity.
A transport official said, “Earlier all auto and taxi unions were reluctant to install these indicators, fearing their maintenance. They were also worried whether it would become another way of extortion by the traffic police.”
The decision was taken on March 14 after union leaders of taxis met the transport commissioner. Mumbai taximen’s union, headed by A. L. Quadros agreed to the proposal, while Shashank Rao, president of Mumbai autorickshaw men’s union denied the proposal.
Mr Rao said, “We have already such provision in our rickshaws. When the meter is down it is engaged and when up, it is for hire. More importantly indicators cannot be fixed due to the nature of city roads. In case it is fixed, it will only invite more trouble for the 1.04 lakh rickshaw drivers.”
In contrast to this, Mr Quadros said, “This step is believed to wipeout misunderstandings among taxi drivers and passengers. Earlier we had some reservations about fixing the meters, but when we learnt that it will cost only `800, so we decided to buy it.”
He said that he would ask members to install the indicators as quickly as possible.