Mumbai’s iconic black and yellow taxis go off the road

Mumbai has bid farewell to the ‘Premier Padmini’ taxis which have stopped plying the roads from October 30. These black-and-yellow taxis are being taken over by the legendary red double-decker diesel buses.

The public carriers, fondly called ‘kaali-peeli’, were more than just a mode of transport but were attached to every aspect of the city.

Giving way to newer models and app-based cab services, these taxis will now bow out from Mumbai’s streets, following the path of retirement recently taken by the BEST’s legendary red double-decker diesel buses.

A transport department official said the last Premier Padmini was registered as a black-and-yellow taxi at the Tardeo RTO, which has jurisdiction over the island city of Mumbai, on October 29, 2003. As the age limit for cabs in the city is 20 years, Mumbai officially won’t have a Premier Padmini taxi from Monday onwards.

This transition comes shortly after the phasing out of the last iconic diesel-powered double-decker buses in the fleet of public transporter Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking due to the end of their 15-year codal life.

The retirement of two once-ubiquitous and crucial modes of public carriers in a matter of weeks has left Mumbai’s transportation enthusiasts heavy-hearted, with some demanding that at least one ‘Premier Padmini’ be preserved on the road or in a museum.

A few years ago, the Mumbai Taximen’s Union, one of the biggest taxi driver unions in the city, had petitioned the government to preserve at least one kaali-peeli, but without any success.

Mumbai now has over 40,000 black-and-yellow cabs, though, in the late ’90s, it had about 63,000 of them, including the air-conditioned “cool cabs” with their distinctive ‘blue and silver’ color scheme.