Capitalism ahoy
Pune recently had an incident of rape which has raised a big question about passenger safety, especially that of women passengers. As a response to this the local road transport authority has asked for radio cabs to be deployed across the city so that reliable and safe transport is available to citizens at any hour. (News article: http://bit.ly/aqmR2h)
Pune, which is growing rapidly has an abysmal public transport system. There is absence of buses between certain parts of the city and the rickshaws are having a ball in this “almost monopoly”. Plans for metro rail projects keep being introduced only to hit the wall in some sort of bureaucratic infinite loop.
What beats me is how does providing individual radio cabs solve problems like rape? Passenger safety would be ensured more effectively if there are multiple passengers in the vehicle. This is possible in buses or metro rails rather than in cabs or rickshaws that are mostly on private hire. But it is possible that a passenger in a cab will be taken advantage of, especially at odd hours where there are few patrol vehicles and almost no people on the streets.
On the other hand, there is the infrastructure problem. Roads in Pune are hardly enough for the current population of vehicles. Adding cabs to that would only worsen the traffic situation. It is immensely frustrating that the government has hardly given a thought to improving the public transport and is already drawing up plans to increase the pressure on the current infrastructure.
The plan to launch radio cabs stinks more of a money making strategy lobbied for by the cash rich cab companies trying to make a foray into a city that has long resisted them, than of a scheme to find a genuine solution to the rising insecurity among commuters. I hope someone among the powers-that-be wakes up and scrutinizes this move.
