City roads welcome 1st kaali-peeli taxis with SOS buttons installed

After the Uber cab rape incident, ensuring women’s safety in taxis became paramount for authorities and taxi aggregators.

While a few like Uber resorted to adding a ‘SOS’ button within their app, city’s black-and-yellow taxi aggregator – Apna Cabs, had decided to install a physical SOS button in addition to the one of their app.

Now that they have received a go-ahead from the state transport department, the kali-peeli aggregator has fitted 15 cabs with a prototype SOS system on a pilot-basis. The system, which cost around Rs. 6000, was fitted in all the taxis yesterday.

Equipped with two buttons- green and red- the prototype is installed near the commuter’s seat to provide easy access in distress. A passenger can test whether the system is functional or not by using the green button, following which s/he will receive an automated answer.

In an emergency, the red button will come to the passenger’s aid. Upon pressing it, an SOS message will be automatically sent to the service provider’s call centre and the taxi will be tracked via GPS device installed inside the vehicle.

The company operating Apna Cabs is also trying to link the SOS message with the police helpline number [100] so that even the cops can be alerted simultaneously.

The city taxi scheme, which is likely to get approved by June, will make the installation of an SOS system mandatory for every taxi service provider across Mumbai. Also, to ensure that the system is not misused, officials are contemplating imposing fines on miscreants.