Indigenous electronic taxi meter launched

kolkata: the first indigenously made electronic taxi meter was launched in kolkata on monday jointly by central electrovation pvt ltd (cepl) and transport and allied services(tas). indigenously made electronic taxi meters are already operating in other parts of the country. the meters, which are tamper-proof, have been specially designed, keeping in mind the humid weather of the city.they have been approved by the electronics test and development centre of west bengal. the motor vehicles department of kolkata has given the permission for the installation of these meters. speaking at the launch, vishal agarwalla from tas said that the price of these meters have been kept much low compared to the chineese and korean electronic meters available in the market. whereas the price of the foreign made metres is over rs 10,000, the price of the new meters is rs 7,300 only. "we have kept the prices low in order to compete with the foreign made meters. apart from this we are giving an warranty of two years", said agarwalla. he further said that while the taxi drivers have to wait for a long time to get these foreign meters since consignments are sometimes stuck at the airport, the indigenous meters will make the delivery time easier. the new meters, he said, will simultaneously show the exact distance travelled, the total time taken, the waiting time and the exact fare. agarwalla said that since the existing meters used in taxis in kolkata are often tampered with, they would want the west bengal government to issue a notification that any new taxi has to have only electronic meter. he also said in this context that the order given by the west bengal government making it mandatory to install electronic meters in the existing taxis has faced resistance from various taxi associations. there are around 32,000 taxis plying in kolkata out of which only 4,000 are fitted with tamper proof digital meters. to begin with cepl proposes to manufacture 100 units of these meters each month although it has a potential to manufacture 1,000 such units. tas has been appointed as the all india marketing partner. the meters will be marketed directly through agents in different cities of india. agarwalla informed that they are looking forward to exporting these meters in the neighbouring countries like bangladesh and pakistan.