IT employees from Hinjewadi get first official taxi stand

The state has finally taken action by opening an official taxi stand at Hinjewadi this week, reports Satyajit Joshi.

Almost a year after Infosys executive Vikram Potdar was robbed and murdered while on his way to Mumbai from Pune in a private car, the state has finally taken action by opening an official taxi stand at Hinjewadi this week. Hinjewadi is located near the Pune-Mumbai Expressway and holds the Rajiv Gandhi International InfoTech Park, a hub for many IT companies including Infosys and Wipro.

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Most of the IT employees, who are residents of Mumbai, prefer to go home for weekends by taking lifts from private vehicles, due to lack of public transport from Hinjewadi to Mumbai. It was after Potdar’s death last year that the problem came to the surface.

DB Thorat, assistant RTO, told Hindustan Times that the decision to start new five taxi stands for Mumbai was taken in November last year at the meeting of Regional Transport Authority (RTA). Accordingly, the first taxi stand was started at Hinjewadi from February 1.

Potdar, an Infosys executive, had asked for a lift from a private car at a junction near Hinjewadi in March last year, but was allegedly robbed after he consumed the eatables laced with sedatives offered to him by a gang during the journey. He was found dead near Panvel a few days later.

Kailas Kanchan of Pune-Mumbai Taxi Consumers Cooperative Society said negotiations were on with the Pune municipal corporation regarding allotment of space for the other four taxi stands. Kanchan said the passenger’s name, taxi driver’s name, taxi’s number, and the timing of departure will be noted down at the taxi stand for precaution.

“This will certainly bring down number of possible crimes”, said Kanchan.