The city’s plan to double its fleet of popular green cabs has been given a green light, The Post has learned.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission this week began selling 6,000 permits for the next wave of lime-green cabs, which serve residents of upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs.
The new batch of street cabs will be added to the 6,000 or so green cabs currently rolling around underserved city neighborhoods, bringing the total up to 12,000, the TLC said.
Demand for the $3,000 permits was sky-high, according to a TLC spokesman, with a wait list of about 6,300 drivers hoping to get their hands on one.
The agency has plans to meet with hundreds of applicants this week, the spokesman added. If approved, the livery-car owners would be allowed to give their cars that trademark coat of green paint and equip them with credit-card readers.
The city was eligible to start doling out the permits in June but pushed back the date in order to engage more with stakeholders.
“We know that a lot of drivers are interested in the new permits and have been waiting patiently for us to start the second round of sales,” said TLC Commissioner Meera Joshi.
“And I know they’ve been popular with riders, so this is good news all around.”
The city has not yet committed to releasing a third wave of green cabs, but a TLC spokesman said the fleet could top out at 18,000 with 50 percent wheelchair accessibility.
The first permits for 6,000 green cabs were issued by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg last year, to the delight of transportation starved residents.
Despite being a champion of the outer boroughs, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been critical of the rollout of the green taxis, a position supporters link to the more than $350,000 in campaign funding he got from yellow-taxi interests during his run for mayor last year.
As public advocate, he worked with the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade’s failed attempt to stop Bloomberg’s plan to allow the green cabs to pick up passengers in outer boroughs.
Green cabs can only pick up hails in the outer boroughs and above East 96th and West 110th streets in Manhattan, while yellow cabs mostly serve Manhattan and the city airports.