Typically, there are around 50,000 passengers, domestic as well as foreigners, coming to Mumbai on a daily basis. Most are businessmen while the remaining are tourists. Many of the business travellers are accompanied by their spouses. When they come here, they want to explore the city, he says.

Currently, Mumbai Gold Cabs Pvt ltd has around 150 taxis out which 100 are Tata Innovas, which will be used for the tours. The fare has not been decided as yet.

Sabnis said that the driver would act as the guide and that they had already started giving the training. “We are also looking to recruit women drivers. Women travelling in groups often insist on having women guides,” he added.

Sabnis elaborated on the tours, “It may seem surprising but tourists from cites like Dubai, Singapore, Abu Dabhi love to shop in the malls here. They find it cheap and also get a variety of Indian ethnic clothes to choose from. That is why we decided to start a malls tour. Also, heritage buildings in South Mumbai have always been an attraction for tourists. So we have the Heritage tour.” The shopping tour will include visit to important markets including the Crawford market, Linking road, Fashion Street giving the tourists a taste of real Mumbai bargaining, he says.

According to Sabnis, each tourist will be given complimentary CD containing information on Mumbai city. Besides there will also be GPRS enabled in the taxis.

It was during his trips abroad in cities like London and Singapore that he came across small taxi tours which inspired to start similar tours in Mumbai. “Some private operators do operate such city tours. But it is disorganised. Our itinerary will cover all the important places that will make tourists' visit to Mumbai truly memorable.”