Tourist taxis to go off roads in Goa on Monday

Tourists planning to arrive in Goa on Monday are likely to be stranded at arrival points, with over 15,000 tourist taxis and auto rickshaws threatening to go off roads.

The North Goa Tourist Taxi Owners' Association said they are protesting against the failure of the state government to regulate practice of renting out bikes and cars for self-driving.

Vinayak Nanoskar, general secretary of the association, told IANS that there would be no tourist taxis available anywhere in Goa on Monday.

"It is a token one-day strike for now. We have been asking the state government to regulate rent-a-bike and rent-a-car services, because it is eating into our business. To add to that the number of tourists coming to Goa has come down," Nanoskar said.

"We are not getting enough business," he added while threatening to go on an indefinite strike if the government did not put a ceiling on the number of cars and bikes being hired out, essentially to tourists, for self-driving purposes.

Goa attracts nearly four million tourists every year. The state has a poor mass public transport mechanism which makes taxis an essential means of transport for visiting tourists.