Antigen tests for toto drivers in New Town

Kolkata: New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) will conduct Rapid Antigen Test on Toto drivers on August 27 and 31.

A special drive was carried out to register the Toto drivers who will be tested on August 27 and then on 31. Those who will be tested positive will be asked to stay in home isolation or if they di not have enough space of their homes then can stay in safe home facility offered by NKDA, its chairman Debashis Sen said. As all the Toto drivers cannot come together to do the test on the same day, two days of lock down will be used to conduct tests on them.

NKDA authorities met two Start UP companies, Point O and Eco Cart who will develop a smart phone application for booking Totos online. Such an app is now functional in Barrackpore involving 1500 Totos.

One of the Start UP companies had carried out a survey on 740 Totos which are running in New Town which found that in the pre COVID 19 period, each Toto driver used to earn Rs 1500 per day on an average. However, the income has fallen drastically to Rs 400 per day on an average when the lockdown was clamped to fight the pandemic.

NKDA on Wednesday handed over sticker containing a QR code to the Toto drivers so that payment could be made through e-wallet.