Traffic police launches special drive for cab verification in Gautam Budh Nagar

There are 13,000 registered cabs in Gautam Budh Nagar, and the police are conducting the verification drive for all the private cabs and taxis in the district

The traffic police in Gautam Budh Nagar has launched a drive for verification of cabs to check these vehicle-related incidents, officials said on Tuesday.

People with criminal records or tainted pasts will not be allowed to drive cabs, said officials on Tuesday. (HT Archive)

Ganesh Saha, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), Gautam Budh Nagar, said there are instances when commuters are looted after taking a lift, or passengers who don’t make online bookings -- a valid process -- snatch away cabs from drivers.

“There are 13,000 registered cabs in Gautam Budh Nagar. We have launched a verification drive for all the private cabs and taxis in the district. We will verify the registration paper of a cab, pollution certificate, insurance, and driver’s credentials,” Saha said, adding that verification of all the drivers is also important for the safety of the commuters.

“People with criminal records or tainted pasts will not be allowed to drive cabs. We will make a database of these vehicles and the drivers, which will be used when needed,” he said.

Such drivers will also be sensitised to only ferry people who book cabs following a valid process. “These drivers cannot offer lifts to unknown people without a valid booking process, like online bookings,” Saha said.

After a cab ride is booked online -- through a mobile application -- it is easier to trace the suspect(s), police said. There are several cases where the suspects pretend to be commuters, and later snatch cabs from the drivers.

Anurag Kulshrestha, president of TRAX -- an NGO working towards road safety -- said that the verification of cabs and drivers is a good move. “But most of these cabs have a national capital region (NCR) permit. This means a vehicle registered in Noida can ply in Delhi and Gurugram, and vice versa. Hence, only verifying cabs in Noida may not yield the desired results. The police department should sensitise all cab drivers and also install CCTV cameras at important roads or points for safety,” he said.

On September 30, 2021, two suspects allegedly snatched a Volkswagen Vento from a driver -- Ram Dhiraj -- in Noida. Dhiraj, a resident of Sangam Vihar in New Delhi, said that he had come to Greater Noida Sector 36 to drop a passenger that morning. “I was returning to Delhi when the two suspects signalled me to stop the car for lift near Pari Chowk. The suspects asked me to drop them to Noida Sector 37. They snatched my car at gunpoint near Kalindi Kunj,” Dhiraj said. A case has been registered against the suspects at the Sector Beta 2 police station. The car has not been found yet.