Karwa Director for Taxis and Limousines Abdulla Ali Bahzad flagging off Al Million Taxis at InterContinental Doha Hotel yesterday as Indian embassy charge d’ affaires M R Qureshi, Al Million Managing Director Abdul Kader Mydeen, Al Million Group chairman Abdulla Sadd A Y al-Mahmoud, and others look on. PICTURES: Jayaram

The entry of the private sector in the country’s public transport sector was formalised yesterday with the launching of Al Million Karwa taxis, to be operated by the Al Million Services Trading & Contracting Company, a business group with diversified activities.
To mark their entry, the company’s 40-odd cars, painted in turquoise and maroon colours, were formally flagged off by Mowasalat Director of Taxi & Limousine Abdulla Ali al-Bahzad at a specially convened ceremony held at InterContinental Doha Hotel in the presence of a 500-strong gathering.
At a briefing held prior to the taxis’ launch, Bahzad complimented the efforts being made by the private entrepreneurs to boost the country’s growing public transport sector, which, he said, would provide more opportunities for investors in view of the strong economic growth being experienced in Qatar.

Al Million taxis at their launch yesterday.

The Mowasalat official said the launching of taxis by Al Million would contribute considerably to the round-the-clock availability of the vehicles for both the residents and visitors across the country.
The company, he said, is the first franchise of the Karwa’s taxi programme which was announced after inviting bids from the local business houses and shareholding institutions. Al Million, which is the first company, has been given a period of five years for their operations. The renewal of the private taxi operations is subjected to the quality of the services that the operators provide to the customers, Mowasalat had announced sometime ago.
Speaking later, Al Million Managing Director Abdul Kader Mydeen said his company will launch its allocated 500 taxis well before their December 31 deadline. He also expressed the hope that taxi customers would benefit from his company’s well-equipped taxis which would be available 24/7.
Al Million Taxis has introduced a toll free number 8005500 for making taxis available to customers. The taxis would also be available on the streets and also at their designated points across Doha, and other towns.
Mowasalat official Bahzad said the new franchise could pick passengers for their taxis from any places other than Doha International Airport. “However, they are allowed to drop passengers at the airport from anywhere in Qatar,” he said.
The official also informed that as per the agreement reached between Mowasalat and Al Million Taxis, the company could park and operate from any taxi ranks operated by Karwa across the country.
Al Million Group chairman Abdulla Saad A Y al-Mahmoud, Vodafone Qatar Enterprise Business Unit Director Neeraj Singh, Al Million Director and General Manager Marzook Ali, operations manager Manoj Chandra Shetty and Assistant General Manager Laxmi Narayanan also spoke at the meeting.

All 500 cars ready by Dec 31

By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter


The country’s first private taxi operators Al Million Taxis are hopeful of launching all their 500 vehicles well before their deadline ends on December 31 this year.
Speaking to Gulf Times on the sidelines of the launching ceremony yesterday, Al Million Services Trading & Contracting Company’s managing director Abdul Kader Mydeen said his company had 385 new Toyota Corolla cars for their operations at present and the remaining cars would be launched in the next few months.
“Besides our highly advanced call centre equipped with the latest communication gadgets, each of our cars is also similarly fitted with latest in-vehicle equipment so that the potential passengers could be ensured of the availability of taxis at the point of their call in the minimum waiting period,” he said.
Mydeen also felt their company would position their vehicles in each of the zones in and around Doha and outside depending upon their customer requirements in the coming days.
“We conducted feasibility, viability and practicability studies in the market in the last few months and identified those areas where there is continuous demand for the vehicles and other areas where there is less demand throughout the day,” he said.
More taxis would be positioned in those areas where there is more demand and availability of vehicles in the morning peak hours would certainly be good, added the entrepreneur.
Once a call is received and attended to by a service agent at the company’s 24-hour call centre (toll free 8005500) in Al-Sadd area, the agent would immediately send an SMS message with the customer’s details and also inform him about the availability of the taxis at the point from where he is making the call, explained Mydeen.
The managing director also felt the launching of the taxi service would give his business group a much enhanced visibility and identity in the highly competitive local market. “Along with gaining better visibility in the market, we also aim to match the highest standards in the taxi industry, as in Singapore or say in some parts of Europe,” said Mydeen.