BENGALURU: After the odd-even rule, the Delhi government, in order to further reduce pollution, has now come up with a new law that will prohibit any non-CNG based taxis to run in the NCR.

This comes as a big blow to both individual driver-cum-owners of private taxis and people who are working in odd shift hours. With the amount of sexual harassment ever on the rise in that region, taxi’s were the best possible method for commutation as they picked up and dropped off woman at their doorsteps, mostly after hours.

As for cab owners, the rule outs them in a fix as the conversion of a diesel based vehicle into a CNG based vehicle is expensive at almost 2 lakh rupees costing for the entire process. It also affects their livelihoods, apart from their daily bread; they will also be unable to pay off the loans they have taken to buy the cars.

"How do we pay our monthly installments to banks for the loans taken to buy taxis? Does not the government realize that diesel cars can't be converted into CNG," asks S. Kumar, owner of Kumar Taxi Services in central Delhi. He also stressed that the court's decision will lead many taxi operators to commit suicide as they will be unable to pay their car installments.

Even though private taxi owners are protesting, taxi aggregators Ola and Uber aren't expecting any problem, because they operate only CNG vehicles in the capital.  

Transport department officials said cabs with all India permit will still be allowed to run on tourist routes that are not local. Diesel cabs that are operated by hotels will not be affected much. But implementation of the order will be a challenge.

With majority of the taxi owners protesting relentlessly against this court order, it waits to be seen what steps the government will take to pacify the agitators and tweak the rule to help them or make other provisions which will not affect their business.

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