The Delhi government has drafted a policy to regulate cab aggregators, such as Uber and Ola, under which app-based taxi services will be bound to charge fares set by the city’s transport department.
The Delhi government has drafted a policy to regulate cab aggregators, such as Uber and Ola, under which app-based taxi services will be bound to charge fares set by the city’s transport department. Delhi transport minister Satyendar Jain said the policy details will soon be revealed to get public’s suggestions for 15-30 days and then sent to lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung for approval.
On Tuesday, the Delhi high court had stressed on the need for “good” and “model” law for regulating app-based cab services, which will be helpful to people and would bring in more clarity.
Under the new policy, cab aggregators will not be allowed to impose surge pricing and they will have to charge fares only through meters installed in their taxis. The companies will also have to install Global Positioning Systems in the taxis being operated under their banner in view of safety of passengers, especially women.
Last month, 20 unions of the city’s autorickshaws and yellow top taxis had gone on an indefinite strike to demand regulation of the app-based taxi services by the Delhi government, saying that their business was getting affected. “The policy will be exclusively for all the app-based taxis in Delhi. We will fix fares for them as we have done in the case of radio, economy cabs and yellow-black taxis” said Mr Jain.
“They can charge minimal fares, but they cannot charge more than the fares prescribed by the transport department. All app-based taxi services will be regulated through this policy,” the city transport minister said. Once the new rules are laid down, the app-based cab companies will be bound to follow the same, he said. A senior official said several app-based cab companies, including Ola and Uber, are not registered with the Delhi government’s transport department, but still they are running their taxis in the capital. Under new policy, these companies will have to seek licences to operate their taxis in the city. Last August, the AAP government had announced a new scheme, called City Taxi, for all the taxi services including app-based, but it did not get a good response.
During the second phase of the odd-even scheme in the city, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had criticised the app-based cab aggregators for surge pricing.
