"The state government is planning to revive and release around 14,000 new taxi permits for Mumbai and its suburbs. We want a reasonable 10-15 percent reservation from this, exclusively for dabbawalas," Subhash Talekar, spokesperson of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association (NMTBSA), told IANS.

Justifying the demand, he said that the small quota would take care of around 2,000 dabbawalas, of the total 5,000 NMTBSA members who help serve hot meals to over 200,000 Mumbaikars at their workplaces daily.