• BCC&I has embarked upon an initiative in discussion with the Department of Transport, Government of West Bengal (DoT, GoWB), to provide the regular yellow taxis a platform for customer sourcing to provide them with a level playing field with other App-based taxi services.

• Such a platform is also expected to provide customers with an option to remotely locate and call a Yellow Taxi without compromising safety, comfort, reliability and cost competiveness.

• The goal is to provide a technology platform that helps Yellow Taxis with a competitive edge in customer sourcing through efficient information management and intelligent trend-based insights – all in real time.

• The name of the solution has been chosen as “Yatrik”. Yatrik is essentially a Sanskrit word which means “related to trips (yatra)” and also has an onomatopoeic similarity with the work “Yatri” (passenger) who are the target consumers of the solution. The word “Yatrik” is used both in Bengali and Hindi and so will have relevance to all cultures in Kolkata.

• Techl33t and Distronix are two Technology Partners for this project. KPMG Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd. helped us conceptualize the whole project.

• Pilot Phase - In this phase, we intend to onboard 300 taxis and operate them for a period of 6 months. The onboarding process will involve procurement of Ride Notification Devices to be mounted on the taxis. (official launch scheduled on 13th September, 2017)

• Once the onboarding process is through, the commuters will be able to book taxis with the help of “YATRIK” App, subsequently, drivers will get to know the destination where the commuter wants to reach in the display of the device. There are two buttons in this device – one is for accepting the trip and another is for browsing through the trips. If drivers want to go to the destination then he has to press “Accept” else the other button. If driver is accepting the trip then drivers and commuters both receive SMS including their contacts. Thereafter, they can establish contact with each other and the trip begins.

• “YATRIK” being a non-disruptive initiative shall not take any responsibility to measure any fare of any route or distance. This App will be purely helping the commuters to find out the meter based taxi with a nominal booking fee (free of charge for the pilot phase). The motto of this initiative is “Meter Taxi at your doorstep”.

• Hence the Disclaimer from Yatrik to the passengers will be: Neither Techleet Infra Systems Pvt. Ltd. nor Distronix undertakes or incur any liability or responsibility of any nature whatsoever either to the commuter or to the driver or the owner of the cab with regard to the use of YATRIK app which is only to facilitate and provide handshaking services between the commuter and the driver/owner.

• The App-Cab Guide guidelines do not apply here.