By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Maxi taxis launched under the Shillong Supplementary Public Transport System (SSPTS) on January 21 last year have come a long way to replace the expensive local taxis in the Pine City and have also added to the coffers by raking in Rs 18.11 lakh in its nine months of service till September 2012, MUDA Secretary T Lyngwa informed on Monday.
“We have not yet updated the revenue earning after September,” he added.
It may be mentioned that 122 maxi taxis are operating in the city and these cabbies mostly cater to those areas where the bigger SPTS buses cannot ply.
The MUDA Secretary also stated that the revenue generation has not been ‘hefty’ since initially the services started with only 14 vehicles and other vehicles were incorporated at a later stage.
He also informed that MUDA, which is operating the services, is interested in increasing the number of maxi taxis but the same would depend on funding.
“We want to increase the areas of our coverage as there are many localities who have been demanding for introduction of the SSPTS cabs.
When asked about complaints of rude behavior and over loading by some drivers, Lyngwa said all the vehicles have a complaint number displayed on the body which can be accessed by commuters to lodge their complaints.
“We do take action whenever a complaint comes and so far we have dismissed as many as forty drivers,” he stated.