QR code in taxis at IGI airport criminal cases

Prateek Chauhan

Tribune News Service,

New Delhi, December 30

For safe travel of passengers at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), Quick Response (QR) codes introduced by Delhi Police for the taxis has been proving to be successful, said DCP Sanjay Bhatia. Since its commencement, in 10 months, no serious crime incidents have taken place with the passengers.

On an average, daily two calls are being received after implementation of the QR Codes. Most of these calls are about left-out luggage of the passengers.

From February 6, 2017 to December 31, 2017, 32 quarrel cases were registered, 13 persons were arrested for misbehaving with passengers and 44 taxi drivers were fined for refusing to travel. Total 104 cases were registered at the Delhi IGIA Police Station. After the implementation of QR codes for the taxis, from February 6 till December 27, 2018, 34 cases have been reported: 10 for quarrels, six each of misbehaving and overcharging, and 12 cases of refusal were registered.

The IGIA is the busiest airport of India. From here, over 60 airlines flights are being operated for nearly 130 destinations. So, daily 1,75,000 passengers travel via IGIA, wherein the cases of foreign tourists arriving here is huge. Most of these passengers use the taxi to reach their destination. Including black-yellow taxis, 3,000 private taxis are currently operational.

As per the DCP Airport, earlier police did not have the data of the taxi drivers. Therefore, incidents like that of kidnapping, excess charging of fare, eve-teasing used to take place. This was when the airport police started the QR code in the taxis in February. Under this, the data of the black-yellow taxis and the drivers were collected and all were provided with unique QR code. On scanning the code installed in the taxis, all data related with taxi and the driver is visible on the passengers'' mobile. This has been connected with the ‘Himmat Plus App’ of Delhi Police. On pressing the panic button of the mobile by the passenger suspecting some untoward incident, immediately the taxi location is traced and the police reaches the spot.

The airport police has collected taxi drivers'' photos, their home addresses including other information. Now on any misconduct of the driver, his nabbing has become easy. In last 10 months, 635 calls have been received — mostly related to small incidents and of missing luggage, the DCP added.