There is hope for the pickup-and-go app-based cab aggregator service at Nagpurrailway station to start as the OV cab has almost completed formalities to bail out the project.
While OV is likely to start operation from the railway station, in collaboration with the contract-holder of the app-based cab aggregators’, citizens claim that Ola cabs are still charging customers INR 25-INR 30 as ‘railway parking charge’, though the cab does not enter the railway premises. The commuters booking Ola cabs from their app at the railway station are still compelled to walk around 300 meters out of the station even as they pay the parking fee meant for inside the station premises.
Sources say the railways’ contract with Ola’s software company ended in 2021 after the Covid-induced lockdown forced the authorities to discontinue the cab aggregator pickup-and-go service from the Nagpur railway station.
Now transferred Central Railway divisional railway manager (DRM), Nagpur division, Tushar Kant Pandey, re-introduced the pickup-and-go service early this month with a fresh contract with app-based cab aggregator services. The service, however, could not take off as the cab companies did not make required modifications in the fare structure in their apps to include the parking fees or waiting charges. The contract-holder wanted at least INR 50 to be included in the fare structure as an additional parking/waiting charge.
Senior Central Railway officials said they too have heard about Ola cabs charging parking fees in the name of railways. “We are unable to take any action because it’s a matter of consumer court whose jurisdiction must be invoked by the victims,” said an official.
Pranay Manekar, sales manager of OV cab, sounded positive after having a round of talk with the representative of cab aggregator services. “OV was positive in the past too regarding joining the cab aggregator service from the Nagpur railway station, but certain issues were difficult to adjust. A mutual agreement has now been reached. Now we are working on the fare structure to include certain charges in the app,” said Manekar.
Deepak Sane, secretary of the Vidarbha app-based taxi cab union, said they unofficially met outgoing DRM Pandey and requested him to allow them to collect some amount as parking or waiting charges in cash from commuters, which is not mentioned in the agreement. “Seeing the service getting delayed and a commuter amenity failing to kick start, we expect the railway authorities to act in a more flexible way for the sake of commuters,” said Sane, adding that OV’s nod has given them some hope. “We would have to pay INR four lakh in February as an advance for this quarter without earning a penny,” said Sane.
