Taxi operators under CITU praise state govt’s ‘Yatri Saathi’ app initiative

Kolkata: Taxi operators under CITU trade union were seen praising the state government’s ‘Yatri Saathi’ initiative with red flags in hand at the Howrah station as they felt that the app will immensely help the yellow cab operators who have been sidelined by private app cab operators.

As the prepaid taxi counters at Sealdah and Howrah have been shut, the ‘Yatri Saathi’ app will help customers fetch yellow cabs.

The state will be running this service in ‘no-profit-no -loss’ model and will take only a meagre amount as maintenance charge

from the drivers who will come on board.

The taxi operators under the Left-backed trade union CITU praised the initiative. A TMC worker said that such has been the development under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that even opposition parties have to accept it.

The state government has deployed manpower at the pre-paid taxi booths in Howrah and the airport to assist passengers in booking taxis through the app.

“The wide-scale roll-out of this app will benefit both the drivers and the passengers. The app cab drivers do not need to pay high commission to the owners once they embrace this app.

The passengers too will be able to take a taxi ride at a reasonable rate,” a senior official of the state transport department said.

The Bengal Taxi Association (BTA) had given the proposal to the transport department to introduce the app.

Accordingly, there were a series of discussions and recently, the trial run of the app has begun. As many as 600-700 cabs running

in the city have already embraced the app.