Adieu Kaali Peeli: Mumbai bids farewell to iconic Premium Padmini taxis

The last ‘Premier Padmini’ taxi that had a permit to ply in Mumbai has reached the 20-year age limit set for cabs in the city. The taxi, owned by Prabhadevi resident Abdul Kareem Karsekar, was registered at Tardeo RTO, which has jurisdiction over the island city of Mumbai, on October 29, 2003. The taxi bore the registration number MH-01-JA-2556.

The ‘Premier Padmini’ taxi, fondly called ‘Kaali Peeli’ by Mumbaikars, has been through Mumbai's rise as India's financial capital. An imagery of Mumbai would've been incomplete without those iconic taxis. They were attached to every aspect of the city. Giving way to newer models and app-based cab services, these black-and-yellow taxis will now bow out from Mumbai's streets, following the path of retirement recently taken by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport's (BEST) legendary red double-decker diesel buses.

It is the pride of Mumbai and my life, said Abdul Kareem Karsekar about his taxi.

Mumbai's transportation enthusiasts, heavy-hearted after the retirement of two once-ubiquitous and crucial modes of public carriers in a matter of weeks, demand at least one 'Premier Padmini' be preserved on the road or in a museum.

Classic car enthusiast Daniel Sequeira said these sturdy cabs have been a part of the city's landscape for more than five decades and hold sentimental value for several generations.

"In the city, we are preserving several old monuments. Similar to those, we also need to preserve these iconic cabs, which are living monuments," said Sequeira, who has added an old taxi mechanical fare meter to his collection due to his love for these cabs.

Mumbai Taximen's Union, a few years ago, had petitioned the government to preserve at least one kaali-peeli, but without any success.

Pradeep Palav, a Parel resident and art lover, said nowadays Premier Padmini taxis can only be seen in murals on walls in Mumbai. Though it has slowly vanished, it has conquered a place in people's imagination and hearts, he said.

"Presently, we have scores of car models as taxis, but when it comes to painting a taxi only the black-and-yellow Premier Padmini pops up in our mind, as it ruled Mumbai's streets for almost five decades and gave a face or identity to the city's taxis," Palav said.

Mumbai now has over 40,000 black-and-yellow cabs, though, in the late '90s, it had about 63,000 of them, including the air-conditioned "cool cabs" with their distinctive 'blue and silver' colour scheme.

AL Quadros, general secretary of the Mumbai Taximens Union, recalled that Premier Padmini's journey as a taxi started in 1964 with the model 'Fiat-1100 Delight', a powerful 1200-cc car with a steering-mounted gear shifter. It was small compared to "big taxis" like the Plymouth, Landmaster, Dodge, and Fiat 1100, called by locals as 'dukkar Fiat'.

In the 1970s, the model was rebranded as "Premier President" and subsequently as "Premier Padmini", after the legendary Indian queen Padmini. Thereafter, the car manufactured by Premier Automobile Limit (PAL) never went through a name change until its production stopped in 2001, he said.

Some 100-125 Premier Padmini taxis remained unregistered due to lack of availability of spare parts or other reasons, for a long time after production ceased. However, in 2003, car dealers managed to secure their registration and the last taxi registered then will now be scrapped, Quadros said.

In the '60s, Mumbai and Kolkata would get 25-30 Fiat-1100D or Ambassador cars as taxis every second month, he said. "The government had set the quota for two cities, but cabbies of Mumbai were reluctant to buy Ambassador and the same was the case with Fiat in Kolkata. Therefore, the union got the quota exchanged with Kolkata and consequently, Mumbai got only Fiat taxis," Quadros said.

The octogenarian union leader said that Premier Padmini's number was at its peak in the '90s, but a big chunk of them went off the roads after the Maharashtra government set a 25-year age limit for cabs in 2008 and then brought it down to 20 years in 2013.

"Premier Padminis were popular among cabbies due to their smaller size, reliable engines, easy maintenance, and comfortable interiors, but after their production stopped, unavailability of spare parts became the main problem," he said.

Cabbies then started adopting various hatchback models of Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai, he added.

Premier Padmini cabs were not just a mode of daily commute, but also a part of Mumbai's cultural heritage as they featured in numerous Bollywood movies, including 'Taxi No. 9211', 'Khaali-Peeli', and 'Aa Ab Laut Chale'. In many old Bollywood films, Premier Padmini cars and double-decker buses would be shown at the beginning to establish Mumbai.

Bharat Gothoskar, a city chronicler and founder of the KHAKI Heritage Foundation, said Mumbai's taxis are yellow and black in colour due to VB Gandhi, a freedom fighter who later became an MP. Gandhi had recommended to former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru that the upper part of the cabs should be painted yellow so that they can be spotted from a distance and the lower part black to hide any stains, said Gothoskar.

"Just after independence, there were many car models in India but later it was restricted to just two – Premier Padmini and Ambassador. Probably the tendency of Mumbaikars is to optimise space and hence the taxi drivers in the city would have preferred the Padmini as the kaali-peeli," he said.

(With PTI inputs.)