After over a 100 such taxis were booted out by, it emerged that at the time of the amendment, the unions had pressured the government to extend the fitness certificate to make them pliable for a few more months
Black and yellow cabs have a codal life of 20 years
Here's why old rickety Premier Padminis are still hanging around. After over a 100 such taxis were booted out by the new Vahan 4 software for being past their revised codal life of 20 years, it emerged that at the time of the amendment, the unions had pressured the government to extend the fitness certificate to make them pliable for a few more months.
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Automatic dismissal
Sources in the RTO said that the issue came to a head when during the migration to the new software, it automatically cancelled the permits for around a 100 such cars as they are meant to be scrapped after 20 years; 500 more could be affected. Consider this: A vehicle registered in 1997-98 is expected to be scrapped in 2017-18, but it has then been granted fitness certificates for another 3-9 months, but are now not being recognised by the RTO's software.
"When the government amended the codal life of taxis from 25 years to 20 years; the unions pressurised RTOs to extend the permissible date of fitness. This has now become a major issue as our new software is not accepting the details of all those cabs that are 20 years and above," said a RTO officer, on condition of anonymity.
Thus, until this problem is addressed, the RTOs cannot declare these cabs scrapped. "These cabs are not getting permission to run despite being given a fitness certificate," said AL Quadros, President, Mumbai Taximen's Union, adding, "Till that time, the vehicle owner can at least buy and apply for new vehicle.
Permits nulled
Moreover, once these vehicles are scrapped even the permit given to the holder becomes null and void. In the long run, it would mean that of the total fleet of 42,000, around 500 will be off the. Quadros has also claimed that, "Vahan 4 charges more than the actual rates for most services and renewals. We have written a letter to the transport department about these issues." Currently, there are several black and yellow cabs parked at the Tardeo RTO, waiting to be cut down and scrapped.
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