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Only 60 cabs for 8 million Lahoris: Where have all the taxicabs gone?

LAHORE: There are roughly only five-dozen registered taxis in the city, Regional Transport Authority (RTA) Secretary Chaudhry Iqbal told Daily Times on Friday.

Iqbal admitted that the figure was very low, especially when compared to the number rickshaws – at least 60,000 of them are registered. He said that tens of thousands of ‘Yellow Cabs’ had been imported in the country during Nawaz Sharif’s previous government, but most people converted the cabs to private use after paying the instalments. He said the scheme had been dumped for this reason. He said several companies had announced that they would start cab services in the city, but nothing had been done so far.

The government allowed the duty free import of at least 300 Black Cabs from the UK in 2006 and the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP) announced to begin a radio cab service with at least 50 cabs in 2003, but the service has still not been launched.

Talking to Daily Times, several Lahoris and tourists complained about the lack of taxicabs in the city, saying that Lahore is the only city in the world where cabs are rare commodities. They also say that other major cities of the country, including Islamabad and Karachi have more taxis than rickshaws for public transport. People who do not have private vehicles and who do not wish to use public transport have rickshaws as their only option for intra-city transport. The only place in the city where cabs are easily available is the airport.

The government has made several announcements regarding the initiation of cabs including the UK-based Black Cab service in major cities of the country, including Lahore, but no development has been made in this regard so far.

“I have travelled through many countries including places like Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Dhaka, Bangladesh, and found taxis readily available everywhere in the world, except in Lahore,” Steve, Canadian rights activist and tourist, told Daily Times. He said he did not feel comfortable in rickshaws and felt that people risked their lives travelling in such vehicles. “People put their lives at risk travelling in the virtually exposed three-wheeler, which is mostly driven by untrained people,” he said.

Talking to Daily Times, Siddique Ahmad, a Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) student, said that students wanted to travel in taxicabs, but could not because of the unavailability of the service. He said, “Several rickshaws wait for customers outside LUMS every day, but no cabs have every been seen there.” afnan khan