Kolkata's Iconic 'Yellow' Taxis May Become A Thing Of The Past Soon But There's A Catch

Kolkata: Many things come to mind when one thinks of Kolkata, iconic yellow-coloured taxis being one of them, but, soon these taxis may become a thing of the past. Fret not, these taxis are not being scrapped instead their lives are only likely to become longer with the state government's plan to convert them into electic vehicles.

However, the colour will also now change to green.

The yellow taxis are expected to get a fresh lease of life, even beyond their 15-year scrap limit, with the government's plans to facilitate their conversion to electric vehicles.

'Kolkata's iconic yellow cabs may live much longer with EV engine'
State power secretary S Suresh Kumar said, "Kolkata's iconic yellow cabs may live much longer with an EV engine." He added that, "With the upcoming scrapping policy of the state, such retrofitting of vehicles will assume significance," he added.

Kumar was speaking at an EV ecosystem workshop organised by the Bengal Chamber (BCC&I) and UK Government. The event was held under the Accelerating Smart Power and Renewable Energy in India (ASPIRE) programme, implemented by the governments of UK and India.

Kumar who is also the architect of West Bengal’s EV policy, said the government was trying to build a "complete EV ecosystem", in which a lot of possibilities could be explored like developing smarter EVs, unique retrofitting of EVs, best practices and financing commercial models that could be applicable to India's EV market.

"We want EV companies to set up their establishments throughout Bengal to develop such an ecosystem," he added.

Kumar also spoke about variable charging tariffs - Rs 5 during off-peak hours and Rs 6 per kiloWatt hour (kWh) during peak hours - to discourage charging during peak hours to reduce stress on power transmitters. He had earlier said that the state had 200-odd EV charging stations across the city.

An application called 'EV-Bandhu' will be shortly relaunched, he said.

Green initiative welcomed by Taxi operators
Taxi operators have welcomed the announcement of facilitating a changeover to EVs to bypass the 15-year-old vehicle scrap policy.

Once a common sight in Kolkata, the number of yellow taxis has reduced to nearly 7,000 after pandemic. Another 2,500- all of them D and E series Ambassadors - will be phased out by 2025, taking the count further below 5,000, operators said, welcoming the government's green initiative.

"It is very good news if we can retrofit diesel cabs with EV engines," said Bengal Taxi Association joint secretary Sanjib Roy. "However, the cost of such retrofitting would be a major issue. If the cost is too high, most cab operators will prefer to scrap their vehicle," he added.

History of Ambassador taxi in Kolkata

The Ambassador taxi was modelled on Britain's 1956 Morris Oxford Series III. It was first produced at the unit of Hindustan Motors in Uttarpara in 1957. The unit was shut down in 2014.

In the begining, the taxis were available in two variants- the black-and-yellow vehicles, which ran within the city's limits, and the all-yellow ones, which were used for inter-city travel. With time, the black-and-yellow taxis became fewer in numbers until only the yellow cabs were left.

App-based cabs had already overtaken the yellow cab fleet five years ago, when the registered yellow taxi fleet had come down to fewer than 22,000. The phasing out of Ambassadors, has further reduced the numbers in these five years

Pre-pandemic Kolkata had 18,000 metered yellow cabs but the lockdown and transport-related restrictions made thousands of cabbies quit the business. Meanwhile, several other cabs were scrapped as they crossed the 15-year lifespan.