private taxis charging exorbitant rates

Warangal: It’s time to make hay for the private taxi operators while people in large numbers are out on roads heading to Godavari Pushkaralu to have a holy bath. And the hapless Pushkar-bound pilgrims left with no choice are forced to cough up exorbitant sums to private taxi operators.

This situation is similar in all the five districts where the river festival has entered 11th day. With just a day left for the conclusion of the 12-day mega religious event that started July 14, the pilgrims surge is increasing by every hour and in all probability it may last till the last day- Saturday.

Except for the first couple of days of the 12-day Pushkaralu, all the roads leading to the pushkar ghats have been witnessing a huge pilgrim rush especially from the last weekend. Majority of them are being ferried by the private taxi operators.

“When the State-run RTC had plans to fill its coffers by collecting 50 per cent additional charges over the normal fare from passengers travelling in the special buses of Godavari Pushkaralu, what is wrong if a taxi operator does the same thing,” Ramesh, a taxi owner, pointed out, while speaking to The Hans India.

The pilgrims too appeared to have understood this fact and were engaging cars despite the exorbitant sums. Or else, the pilgrims had to combat overcrowded buses as there was no other transit mode of transportation available to majority of the Pushkar ghats.

On normal days, the 4+1-seater taxis such as Indica, Mahindra Verito and Swift used to cost around Rs 1,200 per day, while big cars like Tavera, Qualis and Toofan used to cost Rs 2,200 per day without including the fuel and Rs 200 of driver allowance (Battha in local parlance).

As the pilgrim rush peaked for Pushkaralu in the last one week, the taxi operators increased the rent more than two-fold. As of now, while the rent for a small car is around Rs 2,500 a day, the rent for a big car is anywhere between Rs 4,500 and Rs 5,000 a day without fuel. The driver’s battha is also increased to Rs 500.

“Of course, the car rent is a bit too much, but have no other option to avoid it,” G Praveen Kumar Reddy, a resident of Hanamkonda, said. There are over 2,000 private taxis in the tri-cities of Warangal, Hanamkonda and Kazipet.

It is said that majority of these cars were engaged to Kaleshwaram, Mangapet, Ramannagudem, Dharmapuri, Koti Lingala and Bhadrachalam Pushkar ghats. Incidentally, all these destinations are around 120 km except Bhadrachalam, which is around 175 km from Warangal.

By Adepu Mahender