Shillong, Oct 18: Director of Tourism Cyril Diengdoh has asked the tourist taxi associations to submit their suggestions in writing for necessary examination.
Diengdoh,who is heading the government constituted committee on the matter, held two meetings to discuss the matter
During the metting on Friday, the All Khasi Hills Meghalaya Tourist Taxi Association (AKMTTA) has suggested the need for the government to implement a “Reciprocal Transport Agreement (RTA)”, which seeks to benefit both taxi associations of Meghalaya and Assam.
Speaking to reporters, Diengdoh said, “I have requested all the tourist taxi associations to give their suggestions in writing to the committee. Once they give in writing we will examine the suggestions, we will consult the departments concerned including law, police and the transport department, which is also a member of this committee and we will consult other stakeholders and then we can arrive at what are the suggestions and recommendations to be given by the committee.”
on the AKMTTA’s demand, the director said the association had clarified before the committee that they are not at all asking for any ban of Assam vehicles as they know that lots of tourists have to come from Guwahati airport.
“So they have suggested some policies. So I told them to give that in writing what policy that they want in local tourist spots. They did not elaborate on that. They said they will give in writing. Once they give in writing then we will examine as it involves multiple stakeholders including the transport department because they were citing the examples of other states. So I said give in writing what the other states are doing and what kind of agreements do they have. Once they give it in writing, we will examine it as transport department also has to be consulted in this since it is a key stakeholder in this,” he said.
Diengdoh said, “There’s nothing decided today because obviously these are legal issues, policy issues, they need time and we want consultations with many stakeholders. As you are aware the committee’s mandate also is to have wide ranging consultations with all stakeholders.”
According to him, most of the tourist spots in the state are run by community, shnongs and societies.
“Therefore, we will also be consulting the tourist spot owners after we get everything in writing” he said.
Further, the director of tourism informed that some of the suggestions given by the taxi associations were very practical in nature such as developing an app for taxi associations and the drivers.
“Some of them suggested why don’t we have an app so we decided that yes from the tourism department, we will come up with an app where we will list all the tourist taxi associations including the drivers that belonged to this association so that tourists who will come from outside, will have one app, where they will have a listing of all the tourist taxi associations including the drivers and the routes through which they ply so that there will be information to tourists and through this information they can hire them,” he said.
Diengdoh said that many of them also suggested that there is a requirement for holding capacity building programmes for training the drivers.
“We are happy that they suggested that. We understand that today the driver is not only a driver, the driver also has to act as a tour guide because when they journey with the driver, many of the tourists want to know about various places so tourist taxi drivers also require training in tour guiding, in communication skills and other forms of trainings. So they are happy that the government can provide these trainings and we have asked them to give the list of all the associations and the drivers so that we can plan a capacity building programme for all the drivers,” he said.
