Taxis hit by City Center closure move to other areas

The availability of Karwa taxis in the main city areas has improved considerably in the last few days after many of those vehicles that usually operated from the City Center Doha (CCD) and its immediate surroundings have shifted their operations to the ‘Heart of Doha’. Sources among the taxi drivers said they took the decision to move out of the CCD as the temporary closure of the mall has affected their businesses heavily. A look at the taxi rank at the CCD any time these days would reveal that it has only very few vehicles compared to a week ago. “Even though the availability of taxis in many other parts of the city was terribly poor, there were enough number of them available at the Karwa rank in front of the City Center throughout the day, including late in the evening,” said Salvadore, a staffer at one of the prominent hotels in the West Bay area. “Even when taxis were not readily available at the hotel where I am working, they used to reach us immediately on call from the CCD precincts,” he said. Inquiries with the taxi drivers found that unlike in many other areas in Doha, the ‘parallel’ taxis were not that active in the City Center Doha and its surroundings owing to constant vigil maintained by the Karwa supervisors. “As a result, most of us had reasonably good operations and we could easily achieve the target fixed by our company every day,” said a Karwa driver. Claiming that their earnings have fallen drastically in the areas where they are operating in the last few days, some Karwa drivers attributed this to the presence of parallel operators and also on account of extremely hot conditions. This section is hoping that the CCD would resume its regular operations sooner than later so that they could also resume their operations in full swing. Similarly, Karwa taxis from other areas used to get a lot of customers in the afternoons to the CCD until its closure. “Such trips are not there either these days,” said a driver. Not much different is the situation at the Villaggio mall, which has been closed ever since the deadly fire on May 28. The shopping location used to boast one of the best organised and well maintained waiting room for taxi customers in the country. There was exceptionally good demand for taxis at the mall until its closure. However, with the closure of the mall the waiting room is also remains closed and taxis that usually operated from the area and its surroundings too have moved to other locations. Inquiries with one of the Karwa drivers who used to ferry passengers from the Villaggio found more than 50 taxis used to be operated from the mall premises. “With no scope for operating in the area, we have moved to the main city, where there is always good demand” he said. Even though the taxis have deserted the CCD, Mowasalat’s public transport buses (Bus No.76) continue to operate between the place and the Central Bus Terminus. Even the double-decker buses operating on the route are still on the road, inquiries found. A company official said even though there is a massive fall in the numbers of direct passengers travelling on the route, as a public utility the company needs to look into the interests of those all along the nearly 10-km route between the two places.