SAROOR
JAMMU: In a first, the Jammu and Kashmir administration with a motive to ease travel for people especially the tourists, will be introducing the mobile app based taxis like Ola and Uber that will be seen operating soon on the roads across the parts of the Union Territory.
Every year, more than 1.5 crore tourists visit different parts of the Jammu and Kashmir, maximum to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Cave Shrine, to facilitate their travel, the administration has finally nodded for the operation of radio taxis.
“Ola, Uber will soon be seen running on the roads of Jammu and Kashmir and the UT administration has given permission to ply commercial taxi vehicles,” said an official.
He added that the administration has also issued the final notification in this regard to get opinion from the general public.
“A large number of tourists every year visit Jammu and Kashmir and in such a situation, visitors sometimes have to face the shortage of cabs, taxies,” said an official, adding that apart from this, sometimes travel is so expensive in private cabs hired for different destinations.
“We are sure that with an introduction of mobile app run cabs will relieve the travellers and also not add burden in their coffers,” adding they said that the UT administration has recently given permission to run commercial taxi vehicles for cheap travel and to take tourists to parts of the UT.
“The administration has issued the final notification to get the public opinion and if all goes well, by the last week of July mobile app based taxi vehicles like Ola, Uber will be seen operating on the roads,” said an official.
He said that safety of the passengers is the priority of the administration, adding, “due to the changes visible on ground after the abrogation of Article 370, tourist influx has also increased which is swelling every year.”
“To provide better facilities to them, the administration has decided for the first time to introduce the Ola, Uber service, which will soon be like a dream coming true for the people of Jammu and Kashmir in coming days,” they added.
Notably, radio taxis need to have a 24×7 call centre as well as a GPS that can track the cabs and even alert the system in case someone tries to tamper with it or turn it off.
Only those drivers who have transport badges issued by the transport department after a mandatory police verification can be hired.
In addition, radio cab services own the cabs that they operate and these are pre-conditions for an operating license. But that is not the case with other services like Uber.
