Premier Padmini Taxis: Premier Padmini Taxi, which has been the identity of Mumbai for the last six decades, will be closed from Monday. For decades, if one were to picture Mumbai, the imagination would be incomplete without the city’s premier Padmini taxis. This taxi service was popularly known as ‘Kali-Pili’, which refers to its colour. After the new model and app-based cab services, these black and yellow taxis will now go off the roads of Mumbai.
Now Premier Padmini Taxi will not be seen on the roads
The last Premier Padmini was registered as a black and yellow taxi on October 29, 2003, at the Tardeo RTO, which has jurisdiction over the island city of Mumbai, a transport department official said. The age limit for cab driving in the city is 20 years. Therefore, there will be no Premier Padmini Taxi officially in Mumbai from Monday. This is the pride of Mumbai and our life. A resident said that he is the owner of Mumbai’s last registered Premier Padmini Taxi, whose registration number is MH-01-JA-2556.
Why was it named Premier Padmini?
In the 1970s, the model was rebranded as the Premier President and later the Premier Padmini, named after the famous Indian queen Padmini. Thereafter, the name of the car manufactured by Premier Automobile Limited (PAL) was never changed until its production ceased in 2001. Some 100–125 Premier Padmini taxis could not be registered due to lack of availability of spare parts or other reasons for a long time after production stopped. However, in 2003 the car dealers managed to secure their registration and the last taxis then registered would now be scrapped. In the 60s, Mumbai and Kolkata used to get 25-30 Fiat-1100D or Ambassador cars as taxis every second month.
