Business · India Bureau
Once-iconic yellow taxis fade from Chennai streets as app-based services ascend
Decades after dominating Chennai's transportation landscape, the distinctive yellow-and-black taxis have largely disappeared from city roads. Once a familiar sight during the 1960s and 1970s, fewer than 305 of these traditional cabs remain operational today.
LSN India ·
The yellow-and-black taxi, a hallmark of Chennai's transport ecosystem for generations, has become a rarity on the city's congested streets. During the 1960s and 1970s, these vehicles represented a significant portion of the taxi fleet, providing essential mobility services to residents and visitors navigating the former Madras.
While never as dominant as other transport modes of the era, yellow taxis maintained a steady presence throughout the decades. The airport's prepaid taxi service emerged as their most visible manifestation, offering reliable transportation to arriving passengers and establishing a regulated, formal identity for the fleet.
The gradual erosion of this traditional transport model accelerated with the advent of telephone-based taxi services and, more significantly, the arrival of digital aggregator platforms. Companies offering on-demand cab bookings through mobile applications fundamentally transformed passenger preferences, shifting demand away from street-hailed and established yellow taxis toward convenient app-based alternatives.
By 2023, the transformation had reached its conclusion, with official counts indicating only 304 yellow-and-black taxis remaining in active service across Chennai. The dramatic decline underscores a broader shift in urban mobility patterns, reflecting how technological innovation and changing consumer behaviour have reshaped transportation networks across Indian cities.