Delhi govt hits brakes on bike taxis

Later on Monday, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said in a tweet that “aggregator policy for 2W (two-wheelers), 3W (three-wheelers) and 4W (four-wheelers) is in its final stage and will be rolled out soon helping them to apply for grant of licence under the new scheme”.

Asked if there are any provisions currently to seek a licence to register two-wheelers to operate as bike taxis, an official said, “There are no such provisions. As per the current rule, taxi services are where there is a driver and more than one passenger. Under this, only four-wheeler cabs, auto-rickshaws and e-rickshaws are allowed but not bikes. There are certain rules and obligations to operate cab services — the vehicle should have a registration mark; yellow number plates; PSV badge which is issued after police verification; and drivers are supposed to undergo behavioural sessions. Moreover, women’s safety is of utmost importance in such services where mandatory panic button provisions are there, but none of these things are there in bikes.”

Officials said the department has started an enforcement drive and impounded bike taxis plying without permits. In such cases, the team will first issue a show-cause notice and subsequently, fines will be imposed and action taken, said officials.

The first offence is punishable under Section 192 of the Act with a fine of up to Rs 5,000. For a second or subsequent offence, the offender may face imprisonment which may extend to one year with a fine up to Rs 10,000, besides impounding of vehicle. In addition to the above, the driver’s licence will be suspended for a minimum of three months.

Further, the transport department said it has observed that certain digital platforms are facilitating such operations by offering booking through an app thereby engaging themselves as an aggregator, in contravention of the provision of Section 93 which shall be punishable with a fine up to Rs 1 lakh under Section 193(2) of MV Act.

“Accordingly, it is directed to immediately stop such kind of activities to avoid prosecution and penalty, etc,” the notice said.

Bike taxis gained popularity during and after the pandemic when public transport services like Metro and buses were running with limited seating capacity. Services are offered by aggregators such as Uber, Ola, Rapido and others. They did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment.