Confirming the launch, MTU’s general secretary A L Quadros said, “We have booked 25 Tata Indigos and will be introducing them in the cool cab segment on November 5.”
According to Quadros, the union plans to phase out the existing 800 Tata Indica cool cabs with these new sedans. “M/s Fortune Motors will be providing the Indigos which will be made available to cab drivers through a easy finance scheme,” Quadros added.
These air-conditioned cabs will be fitted with electronic meters and will be available at a flag-down fare of Rs 16.50. Quadros said that the union was targeting to launch 500 such cabs by the year-end. “The introduction of these high-end vehicles will give tough competition to the fleet taxi operators without causing problems for the taxi drivers,” he said, adding that the cool cab fare would not be hiked for five years.
Quadros also informed that the union has booked five Maruti WagonRs. “The CNG-fuelled WagonRs will be run on an experimental basis as we want to see its performance, operational cost, etc. If everything works out, we plan to introduce it as cool cab or even as black-and-yellow taxis,” Quadros said.
The luxury sedans will be made available on loan with affordable rate of interest, like it was offered for the Maruti Esteems in August. According to Quadros, so far, 46 esteems have been registered while over 20 cabs are in process of being registered.