Rongrong MDC Rinaldo K Sangma has written to Transport Minister Dasakhiatbha Lamare to urge for action by the state government to address the problem of exorbitant taxi fares to and from the Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT) to Shillong.
Since the ISBT opened in April, passengers have complained of being fleeced by taxi drivers who charge no less than Rs 300 from the facility in Mawlai into the city centre. This means that the taxi fare can end up costing far more than the bus ticket that brought the passengers to the ISBT.
The government made one half-hearted attempt to provide a shuttle service but this was opposed by taxi drivers and abandoned.
In a letter to Lamare, who was his old classmate, Sangma said that the “taxi fare imbroglio has been burning a hole in the pocket of the passengers, especially the young migrant students from my Garo Hills daily.”
The MDC said that several passengers, rather than pay these exorbitant rates, trudge 7km with their baggage to the nearest place from where they can get a taxi on the road.
Lamare was requested to arrive at some solution that would help the Garo Hills students “who expend every little penny of their family’s savings for a single school or college degree from the prestigious institutions of Shillong.”
