Meter... what's that?

Passengers coming into Mumbai by train are left to the mercy of the auto and taxi mafia outside stations who shun meters and quote ridiculous fares

This is part of MiD DAY's month-long audit of experiences of travelling in and out of the city, where we take up people's issues and place them before the authorities to address.

A RUDE welcome awaits those coming into the city by train.u00a0Lakhs of passengers from other cities who come to Mumbai for work, to meet relatives or any other purpose have to first survive an encounter with members of the taxi and auto mafia who think nothing of charging as much as five times the legal fare to take passengers to their destinations.

Autos and taxis operating by meter are practically unheard of at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) and Bandra Terminus two stations from which the traffic department gets the most number of complaints about people getting fleeced by these drivers.

"I was looking for a taxi to go to Bandra (W) from Bandra Terminus after returning from a trip to Ganpatipule. No taxi driver agreed to take me there and the touts were quoting Rs 300 for the short distance, which would have barely cost me Rs 65 by meter," said Rohan Pujari, a Bandra resident.


A MiD DAY correspondent tries to get a taxi driver to reduce the amount quoted by him

LTT

Having heard many such horror stories, MiD DAY decided to go to these two stations to experience the plight of passengers first hand. At LTT, we explained our motive to one Jamil Ahmed, who had just come from Orissa, and he was more than willing to help us.
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Tagging along with Ahmed luggage in tow, we were approached by a taxi driver who asked us where we wanted to go. Ahmed told him that he wanted to go to Linking Road in Bandra and the taxi driver quoted Rs 450 without missing a beat.

Having dismissed him, we moved a little further only to be approached by a swarm of drivers. Nobody agreed go by the meter and the lowest quote we got for Linking Road was Rs 350 from a taxi driver who was not in uniform. Ten minutes of intense haggling and he agreed to a figure of Rs 300.

"None of the taxi drivers were willing to follow the meter. Everybody seems to have a fixed amount in mind and you are left with no choice but to settle for the lowest one knowing full well that you are being cheated," said Ahmed.

R A Khan, who had come to LTT to receive his daughter, said he faced a similar problem every time he went to pick someone up from the station. "I stay at Ghatkopar, which is barely 7 km from here, but the rare taxi driver who agrees to go, demands no less than Rs 150," said the 75-year-old, who is a retired BEST chief traffic manager.


Finding a taxi outside the Bandra Terminus is a tough task despite the multitude of cabs which are
lined up there. Cabbies either refuse to ply or quote astronomical figures

Bandra Terminus

We decided to take an auto to Bandra Terminus from LTT to check the situation there. When we asked an auto driver if he would go, he asked for Rs 250. Fortunately, however, we saw a rickshaw pass by whose driver agreed to follow the meter reading. The ride cost us Rs 130.

Outside Bandra Terminus, we approached a few taxi drivers to take us to Parel or Byculla by meter but got no takers.

After a wait of nearly half-hour, a taxi driver said he would take us there and asked us to choose between paying him Rs 20 more than the meter reading or paying Rs 180 for Parel and Rs 250 for Byculla.

We took him up on the meter offer and paid him Rs 130 on reaching Parel, including the extra Rs 20 he had asked for.

Vivek Phansalkar, Joint Commissioner (Traffic), said, "We will look into the matter. This is the RTO's job, but I will assign an officer to visit the terminuses and solve the problem."

Reader feedback

Here are some readers' responses u00a0to the report carried yesterday:
Railway officials and TCs say they cannot enter the first class coach because of the rush, but can't they stand at the place where the first class compartment comes on a few stations? That way, they'll be able to check the tickets of passengers when they alight and thus, deter offenders.
TCs are also to blame to a certain extent. They should stop accepting bribes from passengers and slap the proper fine. Offenders won't learn unless they are fined heftily.u00a0u00a0
Kamlesh Mehta

I have been travelling on locals on the western line for the last 15 years and have seen passengers increasingly lose all inhibitions against ticketless travel. Of late, I have seen women with second-class tickets nonchalantly getting into the first-class compartment and occupying all the seats. If they are asked for their pass or to go to the second-class compartment, they ask us to mind our own business.
There should be a rule allowing passengers with a valid first-class pass or ticket to ask those without a valid ticket to alight from the first-class compartment.
Sharmila R Ghugre

So far in the campaign...

Up in the air

To kickstart the campaign, MiD DAY aired passenger complaints regarding airlines misplacing, mishandling and damaging their luggage.u00a0

Following up on fleecing cabbies at the airport, we found that though police crackdowns have helped keep the menace in check, ingenious cheats still manage to trap the odd gullible passenger.

We reported on how smartly-dressed touts sporting fake uniforms of reputed hotels take tourists for a ride at the airport. They cheat them of foreign currency, get them cabs with hiked fares and then dump them at cheap hotels

Down by the tracks

A tour of urinals at railway stations on the central and western lines revealed that they not only raise a stink and are unusable but are also breeding grounds for diseases

Taking the road less travelled

MiD DAY took a bone shattering ride alongside regular passengers of MSRTC buses only to find that, barring a few exceptions, they continue to be as rickety as ever

48
The number of trains which come into and leave from LTT every day

5 lakh
The approximate number of people who are at LTT terminus every day to board a train, alight from one or to receive someone everyday

20
The number of trains arriving at and departing from Bandra terminus every day

Write To Us
The high-handedness of auto and taxi drivers has been the subject of many popular campaigns such as the one run by MiD DAY as well as Meter Jam. Have things changed for the better or is there still a long way to go? Have you had a bad run-in with the mafia at stations? Write in with your thoughts and stories at inandout@mid-day.com