Yellow Cab Scheme: Thank you for the cab but where can I park it?

Transport department says city government is dragging its feet on setting aside parking lots for yellow cabs.

LAHORE:

Yellow cabs say they are facing problems in parking as the government has yet to notify taxi stands. So far 900 cabs have been delivered to unemployed youth under the chief minister’s Youth Employment Scheme.

A senior official of the Transport Department, speaking on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that although the department had issued a notification regarding fare, parking lots had not yet been designated.

The government had allocated Rs4.5 billion in its annual budget for 2011-12to launch the Yellow Cab Scheme. It was decided that 20,000 taxis would be provided.

Twelve thousand would be Mehrans and the remaining 8,000 would be Bolans.

Initially, the government had planned to deliver 7,500 cabs by the end of December but so far only 900 cabs have been delivered. Eighty of those are in the city. There are three major taxi stands in the city, at the Railway Station, near Masjid Shahuda on The Mall and at the Allama Iqbal International Airport, where the allocated vehicles cannot be parked.

The government had allocated 1,627 vehicles for Lahore. The government had to designate 12 parking lots near markets, hospitals and hotels where drivers could park, without a fee, while waiting for passengers.

Ahmed, who had parked his cab alongside the road in Liberty Market, said a traffic warden had issued him a warning to remove his vehicle as it was impeding the flow of traffic.

Ahmed said it was strange that while cabs had been provided no instructions had been issued to the traffic police and the city government officials regarding parking rules.

A Transport Department official said that even though the department had not a guideline the city government could designate the parking lots.

He said the Lahore High Court had directed the Punjab government to ensure installation of fare meters but the department had yet to send a summary to the chief minister for implementation of the order.

As an alternative to the installation of meters, he said the department had proposed in view of the cab’s price, depreciation costs and operational costs the drivers should charge Rs18 per kilometre per hour and Rs20 per hour as waiting charges.

All the regional transport authorities have been directed to ensure enforcement of the notified fare and its display on the motor cabs is mandatory under Section 53(1)(IV) of Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1965, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2012.