Pre-paid Taxi Booths

Government of West Bengal
Transport Department
Writers’ Buildings, Kolkata-700 001

No. 1481-WT/3M-74/99 Pt. Dated, 12th April, 2013

ORDER

Sub: Pre-paid Taxi Booths: arrangements of fare charts, service charges, bank accounts and issues related thereto: some revised central principles.

For the last few years, the Government of West Bengal in the Transport Department has been introducing Pre-paid Taxi Booth Systems at important junctions/stations and has been allowing different modalities for operating the said pre-paid taxi booths.

2. In recent months, particularly since early 2012, it is being increasingly decided that Taxi Workers’ Unions (in whatever name called) would not be encouraged to arrange and operate pre-paid taxi booths at these important inter-sections. It has been increasingly felt that the Commissioners of Police/ Police Authorities would be required to take leading, proactive and managerial role in operating, overseeing, superintending and manning (in different combinations), taxi booths at these important junctions/stations. In some cases, the Commissioners of Police have been made the superintending officials in this connection, while in some other cases, the GRP/SP etc. have been made responsible.

3. Some critical issues have since been evolving with regard to management of these pre-paid taxi booths and after intensive consultation with the Home Department and the Finance Department, it has been decided to firm up the State Government’s central directives in this regard in the following manner.

(a) Service Charge:

Service Charge @ Rs. 10/- may be collected by the pre-paid taxi booths from the tourist/passenger against each taxi transaction. The service charge should ideally be collected by a registered body/registered society. Such society may open a bank account and can meet any expenditure as per their bylaws. The formation of the registered body/registered society will take some time to maintain all the formalities. In the meantime, the respective Commissioners of Police may be allowed to open bank accounts in any Nationalized Bank as a very temporary measure. The bank account will be current account in nature. They will deposit “service charge” so collected to the bank account. The bank account will be operated jointly by Commissioner of Police and the Collector- District Magistrate of the concerned district. In the case of the Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, the co-signatory will be the concerned Joint Secretary of the Transport Department. A Commissioner of Police will not be allowed to incur any expenditure from or withdraw any amount from this bank account so opened. The registered body/registered society will be formed as soon as possible, preferably within the next three months. Thereafter, operation of the account will be guided by bye-laws of the registered bodies/societies. The draft bye-laws will be approved beforehand by the Transport Department. These arrangements have been finalised by the Finance Department by their U.O. No. 2655 dated 15.03.2013.

(b) Opening of pre-paid taxi booths:

It has been further decided that all the proposals regarding opening of new pre-paid taxi booths should be routed by the individual Commissioners of Police (except in the case of Kolkata) through the Directorate General of Police, while the latter and the Commissioner of Police, Kolkata would route the same through the Home Department so that, when the Transport Department gives recognition and legitimacy to the said pre-paid taxi booths managed and overseen by the Police Authorities, it has the assurance and satisfaction that the Home Department has centrally examined the questions related to opening of new prepaid taxi booths. On the basis of prior practices evolving in scattered manner over the months, for the moment, the following pre-paid taxi booths overseen and superintended by the Police Authorities are recorded and recognized and ratified as per the following list:

(c) Fare Chart:

It has been experienced that the individual Police Commissioners have often been sending individual proposals for fare charts with regard to individual pre-paid taxi booths in terms of their connectivities to the related neighbourhoods. In order to evolve some uniform principle and to ensure removal of asymmetries, it has been decided that, henceforth, general notifications (as distinguished from notifications for individual Commissionrate/ pre-paid taxi booths) will be issued with only distance slabs and corresponding fare rates mentioned for the different slabs. In other words, comparable distance slabs and corresponding rates or fare charts would be mentioned in a uniform manner for all pre-paid taxi booths irrespective of their locations and the rate chart for night services as well as the service charge rate would also be comprehensively symmetric. On the basis of experience and the orders issued in the past on the basis of recommendations of individual Commissioners of Police, a comprehensive and generic (as distinguished from specific) fare chart tagged to distance slab is hereby evolved:

SCHEDULE

Once this generic chart is published, the Police Commissioners/ other Police Authorities would issue matching orders/ notifications with a copy to the Principal Secretary, Transport Department, Writers’ Buildings, Kolkata, mentioning the names of places/ destinations/ landmarks within the distance slabs for transparency and clarity of the passengers.

(d) Miscellaneous:

Proposals for opening of new pre-paid taxi booths, recommendations for changes in fares, night service rates, service charges, smart card based facility arrangements etc. should comprehensively come through the Home Department so that the pre-paid taxi booths, once approved of centrally, are managed symmetrically, rather than being in an asymmetric manner.

By order of the Governor

Sd/- Alapan Bandyopadhyay
Principal Secretary to the
Government of West Bengal

No. 1481-WT dated 12.04.2013