In bid to provide more facilities and better communication to the tourists, the Bihar state government on Sunday introduced radio taxi system in Patna which will fulfill the long pending demands of the tourists. The decision was taken in view of the ever increasing number of tourists.

CM Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi flagged off the fleet of about 50 radio taxis at the function. The contract for this facility has been given to two agencies -- Lee Way and Flitex as per a TOI report.

Tourism minister Sunil Kumar Pinto said that the Tourism Development Corporation took this initiative for better communication facility. The service of Volvo buses has already been started under PPP mode with 30 buses already operational. Under this scheme, the operating agencies are being given a subsidy of a maximum Rs 20 lakh on each bus and all the tourist places will be linked with this bus service.

"The number of tourists is increasing every year and there was demand for radio taxi. We advertised inviting agencies and finally two agencies have been selected," the minister said. Under this scheme, these agencies will be provided separate phone numbers and the tourists can ask for taxi, which will have an all-India permit and can be taken to anywhere within the state and the country.

Each vehicle will have a GPS system for tracking the location of the taxi and payment could be made through credit and debit cards. All the air-conditioned vehicles will have other provisions like electronic meter to avoid excess billing, panic button, newspapers and music system.

Initially, the radio taxi facility will be available in Patna and some other selected nearby places. To start with Flitex will ply 30 taxis and Lee Way 20. Of these 50 taxis, 30 have all-India permit. Principal secretary, tourism, Deepak Kumar said that the radio taxi facility would be provided to other cities also.