By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter
In a major boost to the country’s public transportation sector, Capital Taxis, the fourth franchisee of the Karwa, will hit the roads later this week.
Capital Taxis will be operated by Ibin Ajayan Group, which is one of the prominent vehicle distributors in Qatar, handling a number of automotive brands including Ashok Leyland buses, Iveco buses and trucks, Skoda cars, Golden Dragon buses (China) and Clark forklifts among others.
Informing this yesterday, Ibin Ajayan consultant-CEO G Ravi Pillai said their taxi services would start with an initial batch of 50 cars but the company would achieve the target of 500 vehicles set by regulators, Mowasalat, in about two months.
Ibin Ajayan is headed by prominent Qatari businessman Mohamed bin Mehdi bin Ajayan al-Ahbabi.
The company’s taxis would have silver grey as their roof colour, it is understood.
Pillai, a veteran in the country’s automotive sector, having got more than three decades of experience, said the entire batch of 500 taxis has already arrived and painting and other works like installation of GPS equipment were currently going on at the company’s sprawling facility on Salwa Road.
“Almost 100% of our taxi drivers have previous experience in the GCC states, including Qatar and they are extremely familiar with the road conditions in the region, in particular in the country,” said Pillai, while adding that their company has launched the taxis on schedule.
The Ibin Ajayan official hoped their company’s extensive experience in the automobile sector would make Capital taxis the country’s most preferred cab in coming months. “We will attract more customers through our better quality services,” he said.
Answering a query Pillai said their drivers are offered the “best package” in the industry and all are recruited on salary basis. “Additional monetary incentives would be given to those drivers attaining revenues beyond the daily target fixed by the company.” he said.
At present, besides Karwa’s own cabs, Al Million, Al Ijaarah and Cars Taxis of Profit Trading & Contracting Company are operating taxi service in the country.
Initially Capital Taxis would use Karwa’s call centre for their bookings.
