Kolkata: Even as 15-year-old diesel taxis
have been phased out in Kolkata and supply of new Ambassador
cars as replacement tardy, the West Bengal government has
refused to allow Maruti Omnis as cabs on grounds of safety, a
claim disputed by the car maker.
"Safety standards of these vehicles are not
satisfactory and as such Omni vans have not been allowed to be
used as metered taxis in Kolkata," Transport Minister Ranjit
Kundu told PTI.
"Accidents in these vehicles can cause serious injury
and even fatalities," the Minister claimed.
Disputing this, the Maruti authorities asserted that
Maruti Omnis were much more reliable and have better control
then many other vans and were being used as cabs in Delhi and
Mumbai.
Regional Sales Manager (East) of Maruti India Limited
J Dhindsa, said "We have shown in our presentation that the
accident rate is much lower in case of Omni vans.
"We have made several presentations before transport
department officials to show that our vehicle is much more
manoeuvrable even after a few years of service."
The transport department had earlier allowed only
Ambassador cars manufactured by Hindustan Motors as taxis,
but just a few days ago permitted use of Tata Indigo and
Maruti Wagon-R as cabs.
Dhindsa said, "We had asked to be allowed to sell only
1,000 of the 5,000 taxis that are to be replaced due to the
Calcutta High Court ordered ban on 15-year old diesel
vehicles."
He claimed that an opportunity was not given to
Maruti though the LPG-fuelled vehicles had almost zero
emission level.
"The LPG-fuelled vans cost much less than the other
cars and also cost per kilometre to run these vehicles is
one-third of diesel vehicles," Dhindsa said.
About Wagon-R from the Maruti stable being allowed to
operate as taxis, he said, "Wagon-R is a family car and was
never meant to be a taxi. I don't know whose idea it was to
allow these to be used as cabs here."
He said that Maruti had not moved the transport
department for allowing Wagon-R to be used as taxis.
The transport minister admitted that response for the
Indigo and Wagon-R was not good among taxi operators.
President of the Joint Action Committee of Taxi
Operators Unions, Bimal Guha, said that only three Indigo
taxis have hit the roads, while no operator has applied for
the Wagon-R.
-PTI
First Published: Friday, November 27, 2009, 12:06