Expect auto, taxi fare hike soon in Mumbai

Here's another alert for your wallet: Auto and taxi unions are demanding a fare-hike to level up rising CNG prices. Both unions have asked for a hike of Rs 3 in the minimum fare (bringing it to Rs 21 from the current Rs 18 for rickshaws; and Rs 25 for black-and-yellow cabs from the current Rs 22) and hike of Rs 1.50 to 2 on the subsequent clock-ups of the meter.

Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) raised the prices of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) by Rs 2.66 Tuesday onwards, taking it to Rs 49.61 per kg. MGL says the hike is due to increase in cost of gas, significant appreciation of the US dollar against the Rupee, and increase in transportation costs. "This will impact running costs of auto-rickshaws and taxis marginally," said an MGL spokesperson, "Re 0.10 per km and Re 0.13 per km, respectively."

As of Tuesday, unions are in the process of sending formal letters to the state Transport department stating their demands. "We have already written to them once before, requesting permission to raise fares," says Shashank Rao, president of Mumbai Auto Rickshawmen Union, "Now that CNG prices have increased, we will demand a fare-hike again."

The unions say that apart from the rise in prices, they are losing out on time and being inconvenienced as many CNG filling stations in the city do not work full time due to ongoing Metro work. To avoid jams, autos and taxis are not allowed to queue up at filling stations during peak hours. "Fuel prices have risen amidst all these problems," said Al Quadros, leader of the Taxi union. "Parameters determining fare hike have mounted."

However, sources say the attempt to raise prices is half-hearted since unions know they are already losing customers to mobile aggregators such as Ola and Uber. "In the past few months, people have gone back to black-and-yellow autorickshaws and taxis due to issues they've faced with mobile aggregators. If we raise fares now, it will impact us negatively," said an auto-rickshaw union leader.

Around 1.08 lakh auto-rickshaws ply in Mumbai, of which around 15 per cent ply on share-basis from railway stations to residential societies or areas.