Now E-Taxi

2026-02-27 - 20:54

PUNJAB Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Thursday launched an e-taxi scheme in the province, saying that the initiative was part of the government’s efforts to establish an “e-mobility ecosystem”. At a ceremony held for the scheme’s inauguration, she announced that around 1,100 e-taxies will be provided under the scheme at a subsidized rate, with a 30 per cent quota reserved for women. The CM has to her credit a large number of initiatives that are benefitting people of the province in different ways and the e-taxi is another scheme that is expected to leave its impact on the socio-economic landscape of the province. As pointed out by Maryam Nawaz, Punjab has become the first province to launch an e-taxi scheme, the first of its kind, not only for the environment, but it will also open up employment opportunities. Appreciably, the scheme is mark-up free and the Punjab Government will pay fifty percent of down payment for male and sixty percent for female drivers. The government is also bearing the cost of vehicle registration, fitness tests and token tax and the loan will be repaid in installments over five years. To ensure the safety of drivers and passengers, each e-taxi has a panic button linked to the Punjab Safe Cities Authority. The e-taxis are being registered with online ride-hailing platforms. Fast chargers are being installed at various locations for the vehicles that are equipped with cameras, Wi-Fi and charging ports along with digital payment facilities. All this means the scheme has been launched with necessary preparations, which will ensure its success and relevance for the people. However, presently, it is necessarily a pilot project confined to Lahore and involving distribution of about 1,100 taxis. Hopefully, like other transport schemes of the Punjab Government, it will be expanded to other parts of the province as well. The meticulously launched transport projects like the Green Electric Buses had revolutionized the sector in Punjab and become a model for others. As many as 1,500 buses are being added, with another 1,100 to join the fleet later with the ultimate objective of expanding the service to all 148 tehsils of the province. Work is under way on metro bus projects in Faisalabad and Gujranwala, while students, women, senior citizens and persons with disabilities are provided free travel on the buses. As for the e-taxi initiative, it is becoming a popular scheme as so far over 66,000 people have registered for the purpose. Foolproof mechanism should be evolved to ensure that the taxis are distributed in a fair and transparent manner.