New colour for cabs to be fixed in 3 months

In three months, Mumbaiites will know the new colour of the city’s black and yellow cabs. Shashank Rao reports.

In three months, Mumbaiites will know the new colour of the city’s black and yellow cabs.

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Transport Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil who has been keen to change the colour of cabs said his department had shortlisted four combinations for the taxis on Thursday.

The combinations are — yellow, sky blue with yellow on roof, yellow with brown stripes on the sides and yellow with a black roof.

About six months ago, the Transport department had sought ideas from art students for new designs for the cabs.

“We have retained yellow as it signifies public transport,” said an official from Transport department.

For the money spent on the new colour scheme, the taxi drivers and owners will get advertising rights on the vehicle’s body.

The department has also proposed to have global positioning systems fitted in all taxis that would monitor the cabs and act as a safety tools for commuters. Transport department will take care of the cost of fitting these systems.

Better models of the black-and-yellow taxis costing more than Rs 8 lakh can be expected in the next three years. “We don’t mind getting models like Maruti SX4 or Honda as taxis,” said A. Quadros, general secretary, Mumbai Taxi Union.