Anand Mahindra Pays Tribute To Iconic Padmini Taxi As The Last Kaali-Peeli Cab Goes Off Road

The last iconic padmini taxi aka kaali-peeli taxi has been taken off roads. Anand Mahindra

Mumbai: As the last famous black-and-yellow Padmini taxi, known as 'Kaali-Peeli taxis,' has been taken off the streets of Mumbai, many people are expressing their heartfelt tributes, reminiscing about the memories associated with these iconic taxis. These taxis were painted in black and yellow colors, and they were widely recognized as 'kaali-peeli taxis.'

The Chairman of the Mahindra group, Anand Mahindra, paid his respects to what was once the lifeline of Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay. He expressed his gratitude to these vintage vehicles, mentioning that they carried lots of memories and did their job of taking people from one place to another. He concluded by saying, "Thank you for the good times..." and even shared an image of the iconic Padmini taxi.

"Starting today, the iconic Premier Padmini Taxi has disappeared from Mumbai's roads. They were old, uncomfortable, not very reliable, and quite noisy. They also didn't have much space for luggage," described Anand Mahindra in his post about the taxis and the memories they held.

From today, the iconic Premier Padmini Taxi vanishes from Mumbai’s roads. They were clunkers, uncomfortable, unreliable, noisy. Not much baggage capacity either. But for people of my vintage, they carried tons of memories. And they did their job of getting us from point A to… pic.twitter.com/weF33dMQQc — anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) October 30, 2023

The last 'kaali-peeli' taxi had the license plate MH-01-JA-2556 and was owned by Abdul Kareem Karsekar, a resident of Prabhadevi. A representative from the transport department confirmed that the final Premier Padmini taxi had officially registered with the black-and-yellow livery at the Tardeo RTO, which has authority over Mumbai's island city. Since the maximum age for taxis in the city is set at 20 years, Mumbai will no longer have a Premier Padmini taxi on its streets starting Monday.