Public Transport in Mumbai - Taxis

Taxis

The Taxis arrived in 1911 to complement horse wagons. The black and yellow Fiat taxis in Mumbai, are integral part of the city's heritage and have been depicted in numerous Bollywood movies. These metered taxis ply throughout Mumbai and have monopoly from Bandra to Churchgate on the Western line and Sion to Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus on the Central line. Beyond Sion and Bandra auto rickshaws are not allowed and one has to hire a taxi. However, between Sion to Thane and Bandra to Bhayandar, Taxis and autorickshaws ply. A mechanical meter decides the fare and is proportional to the distance traveled.

Number of taxis (cabs): About 58,000 In Greater Mumbai and 98,566 In Mumbai MMR.

Only 20,000 old black and yellow taxis on Greater Mumbai road and 35,000 New taxis like Maruti Alto, WagonR, Omni, Tata Indica, Santro etc. Recently Radio cab services have been introduced by some private companies. These taxis are brand new air-conditioned cars fitted with GPS and electronic metres. Fare is same as that of Cool Cabs. Presently operated by the following companies: Meru (Green Silver), Gold cabs (Yellow Red), Easy Cabs, Star Taxis (White & Purple), Forsche Taxi and Mega cabs (Black). However these taxis need to be booked in advance by calling their call centre number. It is convenient to call AC cabs in just 5–30 minutes depending on the place & time. Recently the police revealed that the law requires the driver of an unengaged taxi to take you to wherever you want to go, regardless of distance or time, in case the fare meter of the unengaged rickshaw/taxi is in a 'For Hire' mode. The modes were denoted by older mechanical meters in this manner: a) upright - for hire b) half mast - not doing business c) currently hired. If the driver does not comply, one simply needs to call the police on 1800-22-0110, a toll free number and mention the taxi's license number and the driver's name. The act of calling the police on your cell phone usually makes the driver comply with your request to be taken to your destination. Mumbai Transport commissioner Dilip Jadhav recently announced direct email id for complaints could be about anything: refusal to ply short distance, excess fare charged/tampered meters, fake tariff cards, misconduct by drivers or any other complaint. Other methods of complaining against the auto rickshaws and taxis is available on the Mumbai RTO website, here.

Some taxis now use an electronic meter, and soon are taxis are expected to use new electronic meters, which directly display the actual fare, not requiring a conversion, as required in the current mechanical taxi meters. The conversion of the mechanical meter reading to the actual fare, payable in INR is published on the Mumbai RTO's website here. The fare is applicable for yellow/black non air-conditioned taxis only. It is important to understand that the meter reading actually denotes the miles travelled, with the initial minimum set to 01.00. Thereafter the meter increases by 00.10 for each 1/10th mile travelled.

The basis for the fare calculation is :

• Minimum fare : Rs. 16.00 for the first 1.6 km (1 mile).
• Fare for each subsequent kilometer : Rs. 10.00

The fare is payable at a multiple of 1.25 (i.e. Rs. 125 for every Rs. 100 calcuated for the meter reading) between midnight and 5 am.