30 December,2014 07:20 AM IST | | Ankoor Anvekar
The RTOs at Panvel and Vashi have made it mandatory for them to go through police verification and get the badges
Taking into account the recent rape involving an Uber taxi driver in the country's capital, the Regional Transport office (RTO) in Navi Mumbai has now made it mandatory for tourist taxi drivers to display a badge similar to that of auto rickshaw drivers.
The RTO has made badges mandatory for tourist taxi drivers after the recent rape involving an Uber taxi driver. File pic for representation
As per the notification issued by Panvel and Vashi RTOs on Monday, it will now be mandatory for the drivers of tourist taxis to go through police verification and get a badge from the respective regional transport office. Arun Kumar Yeola, regional transport officer at Panvel RTO, said, "In order to apply for the badge, the drivers will have to go for police verification.
This will enable us to have complete background information about a driver. We and the Vashi RTO have issued notifications of badges for tourist taxi drivers. The badges will look similar to those worn by the auto rickshaw drivers." Yeola said a meeting had been held with representatives of all local tourist taxi unions and they had agreed to the badges.
There are over 5,000 tourist taxis in Panvel RTO's jurisdiction alone, while under Vashi there are around 10,000. Officials revealed that after a verification check with the police, drivers will be required to give a test related to traffic rules at the respective RTO offices. Thereafter, they will be issued badges with numbers embedded on them.
An official from the Vashi RTO said that the system of issuing badges to tourist taxi drivers was already in place, however, taking into account the crimes happening in such vehicles the RTO has decided to make them mandatory.
