Many cabs impounded, real road test today

The Supreme Court had on Saturday refused to extend the April 30 deadline fixed for diesel-run taxis for their conversion to CNG mode. Authorities impounded diesel-run cabs, plying on local routes in various areas of the national Capital, on Sunday. “Instructions have been issued to the authorities concerned, including the transport department, to impound diesel-run taxis plying in Delhi-NCR,” said a senior government official.

According to the Delhi transport department, 60,000 taxis are registered in the national Capital and of them 27,000 are running on diesel. Around 2,000 diesel-run taxis have converted to the CNG mode in the past two months.

The Supreme Court order is not applicable on cabs having All-India Permits, but mostly diesel-run cabs ply on local routes. The ban will essentially bring down the number of cabs in the Capital.

“As per rule, taxis having All-India permit are required to cover a distance of around 200 km. Taxis having All-India permits cannot ply from one point to another in Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad,” the official said.

Cabs going off roads may cause inconvenience thousands of commuters as many diesel taxis ferry people from Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad.

Opposition leader in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta has held the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government accountable for the ban, thereby risking the livelihood of lakhs of people in the city. 

“It clearly demonstrates the indifferent and non-serious attitude of the AAP government towards the well-being of the people as it did not make alternate arrangements of public transport,” he said. “We cannot keep on extending the time. We are not extending it now and not going to make any exception. There is technology available, you convert,” a three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur, had said on Saturday, while rejecting the plea that it would affect the livelihood of poor drivers.

The Bench, also comprising Justices AK Sikri and R Banumathi, had on March 31, extended the deadline till Saturday for conversion of all diesel taxis to CNG.