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Fare revision demanded, following CNG price hike
The union has demanded that minimum fares be increased from ₹25 to ₹35 with immediate effect, claiming that taxi drivers have been incurring losses of ₹300 per day due to the increase in CNG prices.
As compressed natural gas (CNG) prices in the city were hiked to an all time high of ₹80 on Tuesday at midnight, Mumbai Taximen’s Union, representing the majority of taxi drivers in the city, has demanded a revision of minimum taxi fares.
The union has demanded that minimum fares be increased from ₹25 to ₹35 with immediate effect, claiming that taxi drivers have been incurring losses of ₹300 per day due to the increase in CNG prices.
“The Khatua committee (on fixing the tariff structure) had recommended to the government that the taxi fare should be revised immediately if CNG prices increased by more than 25% after the last fare revision. The price of the CNG has increased by more than 35 percent without a revision in taxi fares. “I once again request you to kindly revise the taxi fare from ₹25 to ₹35 immediately,” wrote Al Quadros, general secretary of Mumbai Taximen’s Union in a letter.
The price of CNG was hiked by ₹4 and the price of Piped Natural Gas (PNG) was hiked by ₹3 by Mahanagar Gas Limited(MGL) on Tuesday at midnight.
Earlier CNG was priced at ₹76 per kg while PNG was available at ₹45.50 per standard cubic metre (SCM). The hike on Tuesday was the fourth CNG price hike in 2022.
The first lot of 10 new 525 AC electric buses will be introduced by the BrihanMumbai Electric Supply and Transport(BEST) next week.
The buses have a carrying capacity of 54 people with a seating capacity of 39 people in the 12 meters long electric AC buses.
“We will add 2100 AC electric buses over a span of next 10 months,” said Lokesh Chandra, general manager, BEST. The buses, built by Olectra, have been acquired by the BEST on a wet lease order valued at ₹3675 crore
BEST aims to make 50 percent of its fleet electric buses by June 2023. There will be nearly 2,000 electric AC and non AC buses by 2023 including AC electric double decker buses.
The electric buses are being procured under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) II scheme that promotes the use of electric vehicles in the country. The organisation aims to have a 100% electric fleet by 2027.
BEST is presently operating 386 electric buses on different routes in the city.
