Mumbai: Merely 65 people responded to the state’s online survey to decide the fares of Ola, Uber and other public transport services such as taxis and auto-rickshaws in the city. The online survey that included capping of fares was uploaded on the transport department’s website on April 17. People were asked to give their opinion until April 30, but due to lack of response, the date has been extended till May 15.
The transport department has now urged the public, whose opinion is vital in deciding the new fares, to send their responses.
After the central government’s City Taxi Scheme was implemented in March, all the state governments were asked to hold a survey, asking people will give their opinion on how much they pay and how much they should be paying. The public was also asked to give their opinion on fares of black-and-yellow taxis and autos.
B.C. Khatua, who is heading the four-member panel, will submit the report based on the survey to the state government. The report will be then sent to the central government. Mr Khatua said, “We need a decent amount of responses from the people of Mumbai for whom these fares will be very important.” He further added, “We have received 65 responses, but we need more people to come forward because higher the number of people, more credible the survey.”
Officials said that the minimum responses for such survey should be around 5,000 and the ideal would be a sample size of 10,000. According to statistics, around 65 lakh Mumbaikars use different variations of transport throughout the city.
Transport commissioner Praveen Gedam has requested the public to participate in the survey. He said, “People should come out and let us know what they exactly want.” He added, “Mumbai’s transport has been changing a lot. The aggregators have entered the market which is why a revision of the fares for regular black and yellow taxis and auto rickshaws is also needed.”
The forms can be filled out on www.transport.maharashtra.gov.in and are available in a PDF format.
