At a press conference this evening, Parrikar said that the taxi operators who were supposed to get the speed governors fitted on their vehicles by February 24 will now be given more time by the State government, which has a right to give the exemption under the Act.

“Enough speed governors are not available in the State due to which more time would be granted to them to install them, and in the meantime, they would be issued fitness certificate by State Transport department,” he said virtually tonight down his stand that speed governors are mandatory by February 24 as per Centre order.  

The chief minister also said that the State will file intervention petition before the SC which is currently hearing the petition on implementation of the speed governors.

“From our point of view, speed governor is not required for the tourist taxis in the State as by installing them nothing is going to change in Goa,” he commented after taxi operators protested that they are not responsible for accidents, this being main reason commercial vehicles are really speed to install speed governors. 

The government however has not backed out from its proposal to start it’s own app based taxi service in Goa. 

The Goa Tourism Development Corporation has been asked to man the taxi counter at the airport and open multiple windows so that the fliers are not put to inconvenience.

The Goa Tourism Development Corporation has also been asked to invite bids to design mobile application and hire the taxis which will operate on lines with Ola and Uber. 

The Travel and Tourism Association of Goa has expressed relief with the strike’s withdrawal. “TTAG is relieved that the strike is called off as it was affecting the the image of Goa nationally and internationally. We would like to congratulate Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, Transport Minister Sudin Davlikar, Chairman of GTDC Nilesh Cabral, Chairman of KTC Carlos Almeida and Director of Transport and GTDC MD  Nikhil Dessai,  for seeing to it that the strike did not affect the smooth flow of tourist and for having worked tirelessly to see that tourist are not put to inconvenience and the  the strike had a very minimal effect on the  smooth flow of tourism in Goa,” a press statement issued by TTAG President Savio Messias said.  

The TTAG said it hopes and expects that all the other connected issues are also settled once for all by the government  and ‘that we are not again forced to  encounter  similar inconveniencies in the future.  We are of the opinion that the withdrawal of the strike by the taxi operators should be unconditional and without any threats of fresh agitations. No threats of future strikes should therefore be entertained and the government should therefore act only after taking a firm assurance of  unconditional withdrawal of the strike by the Taxi Operators. ‘

 Although government has made alternate arrangement to ensure tourists are not stranded during the strike period, some tourists did faced difficulty.