india

Updated: Apr 23, 2019 06:21 IST

Collectors of the island city and suburban districts have asked the regional transport offices (RTO) to make available 4,200 vehicles, including more than 2,000 black-and-yellow cabs, for election duty by the midnight of April 27.

These vehicles will be used to ferry staffers along with polling material, to and from their polling booths, on the polling day, April 29, and a day before, when there will be a rehearsal of the polling. The city district collector has registered a demand of 1,206 vehicles, including 607 taxis, 563 buses, and 36 trucks. The suburban district collector has asked for 2,985 vehicles, including 1,466 taxis, 1,434 buses, and 85 trucks.

As more than 2,000 black-and-yellow cabs will go off roads, passengers might face some difficulty getting cabs on Sunday, although there is a holiday on the polling day.

An RTO officer said it will be a tough task to acquire such a large number of vehicles. “We will take help of taxi, buses and truckers’ unions,” said the officer. The officer said app-based taxi aggregators did not show interest in giving cabs for election duty, as the ownership is individual. The collector’s office had asked them to check the possibility to hire them on a daily payment basis.

According to RTO officers, the collector’s office will pay for use of vehicles. The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Transport Authority has a fixed rate for vehicles acquired for polling duty.