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Calibrated, digital taxi meter project launched in Kolkata

Ambar Singh Roy

KOLKATA, Sept. 2

CENTRAL Electro Vation Pvt Ltd, a little-known company engaged in high-tech innovations, has set up calibrated, digital taxi meter project here in Kolkata at a nominal investment of Rs 15 lakh.

According to Mr Shantanu Dutta and Mr S. Chandra, Directors in the company, the indigenously-developed digital meter has been approved by Electronic Testing & Development Centre of West Bengal. The Motor Vehicles Department here has accorded permission f or installation of these meters in taxis here. Till now, most of the digital taxi meters were imported from China and Korea. In India, only one Bangalore-based company manufactures such meters.

Mr Dutta said there were about 32,000-plus metered taxis plying on the roads of Kolkata alone. Of these, only about 4,000 are fitted with calibrated, digital, configurated and tamperproof taxi meters. However, the transport authorities in Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai, among others, have now made it mandatory for electronic meters to be fitted in all new taxis. As such, the project has good potential in the days ahead.

To market the meters, Central Electro Vation has accorded Transport & Allied Services of the Bhagwandas Group with all-India marketing rights. The Bhagwandas Group is among eastern India's largest commercial vehicle financiers and owns Asia's oldest moto r training school.

To begin with, Central Electro Vation proposes to manufacture 100 units of these meters every month. Operations at the Kolkata plant are scaleable and shall be ramped up in a phased manner, according to Mr Chandra.

Mr Vishal Agarwala, Director of Bhagwandas Group, said the meters would be marketed directly and through agents in different cities. Marketing agents for Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai have already been identified. These meters would be priced at 40 per cent lower than the imported meters. "We shall be the lowest-cost supplier of these meters in the market", he said.