The two-wheeler ride services offered by Uber, Ola, and Rapido have been prohibited in New Delhi, endangering millions of jobs.
The sentence is a significant setback for commuters who frequently use bike taxi services since they are less expensive than car rides. On Monday, the Delhi Transport Department announced that it is against the law to use private two-wheelers to transport people for hire in India. It stated that the prohibition order would go into force right away.
Ola, UBER Services Banned In Delhi: All You Need To Know About It
The notice claims: “It has come to light that that bike taxi service provided by Uber, Ola and Rapido have violated transport rules. Hence, the service has been by the city’s transport department.”
“It has been brought to the notice that two-wheelers having non-transport (private) registration mark/numbers are being used to carry passengers on hire which is purely commercial operation and a violation of Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.”
The Motor Vehicles Act states that private automobiles cannot be commercialised in India. The announcement says that the first violation will result in a punishment of Rs. 5,000 (USD 60), while the second offence would result in a fine of Rs. 10,000 (USD 120) and one year of imprisonment. The offender may also lose his licence for three months in addition to that.
But still, the penalty for the business organizations will be considerably larger. If these digital platforms enable the operation of offering bike taxi rides to passengers, they will be penalised Rs 100,000 (USD 1,200).
That happens only a few weeks just after Supreme Court denied relief to a distributor of bike, taxi, or auto services because the organization was operating illegally in the state of Maharashtra.
India’s motorbike taxi business was estimated to be worth $50.5 million and was projected to reach $1.5 billion by 2030, as per a report released by Allied Market Research last year.
