Yatri Sathi promises cleaner rides particulary for the key transit hub passengers
Telegraph | 1 April 2025
The state government has launched a #CleanCabPromise drive through its Yatri Sathi platform to ensure that taxis, particularly those picking up passengers at key transit hubs in the city, are cleaned before every ride.
Commuters have often complained that they find the cabs littered and smelly.
The drive now covers the taxis picking up passengers from the airport and Howrah station.
However, cleaning the interiors may not be the only need of the hour, as many cabs on the roads are visibly rickety and belch smoke.
“The idea is to maintain hygiene and cleanliness inside the cabs that thousands of people use daily and to instil this habit in drivers and commuters alike,” inspector-general of police (traffic) Sukesh Jain said.
Greasy seats, littered floors, dirty window panes and an unpleasant odour are common in the cabs.
The police said they wanted to set an example with this cleaning drive.
“The cleaning service is now available at the airport and Howrah station. Gradually, we want to instill this sense of cleanliness both in drivers and the commuters,” said an officer of the traffic department.
A group of men and women engaged for the cleaning job would wait at the Yatri Sathi booth outside the airport and Howrah station, where they would clean the cabs that queue up.
After the drive was launched last week, several commuters said there was a need to check the physical condition of the cabs.
“We see many tottering cabs rolling on the roads, most emitting black smoke,” said a Ballygunge resident.
The police said any vehicle found with a failed pollution certificate is prosecuted and penalised.
“There are no exceptions. Any car, be it a cab running on the Yatri Sathi portal or not, is immediately penalised if we find it creating pollution,” said an officer in the traffic police.
The officers did not talk about the rackets involved in the illegal practice of issuing fake or fraudulent certificates without proper emission testing active in several parts of the city.
The state-run app cab service is available to anyone downloading the app from the Google Play Store or the App Store for iPhones.
According to official data from the state transport department, around 90,000 drivers have enrolled in Yatri Sathi and 34 lakh people have downloaded the app.