New taxi cabs in the citys

The city-dwellers are waiting for the taxi cab services. Media reports say a fleet of 500 brand-new taxis are going to hit Dhaka city streets on the Bangla New Year. We look at it as a New Year gift. Not only the city-dwellers, it will bring relief for the travellers and tourists coming from other places.

One of the main reasons for Dhaka being an unliveable city is the poor communication system specially absence of taxi services. It is unthinkable that a capital city with an area of over 900 square kilometres and inhabited by ten million people does not have any taxi service.  

The fare of AC cabs has been fixed at Tk 60 for the first two kilometres and Tk 15 for each next kilometer.  Non-AC taxis are a little bit cheaper. This fare sounds too much, and beyond the capacity of the higher middle class people even.

Attempts were taken in the past to introduce taxi service in the city, but this was not sustainable due to the absence of proper management and monitoring system. The most visible reason behind the failure is the greed and dishonesty of the taxi drivers. There was no standard fare, the drivers did not care for the metre and extorted exorbitant money from the passengers. Before taking a fresh attempt at introducing taxi service in the city, the authorities should consider these aspects.

Nurun Nahar

Eskaton Garden Road, Dhaka