Amid the ongoing dispute between cab aggregators and the state government, Ola has become the first such company to get a licence to operate cabs in Karnataka.
The Bengaluru-based aggregator has been given the licence under the Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules 2016 after it registered and furnished the details for 100 cabs.
HG Kumar, state transport authority officer and additional commissioner, told TOI: “I have approved the licence for Ola. It's now legalized as a cab aggregator in Karnataka. But it has furnished details of only 100 vehicles. It has to make several other arrangements as per the new regulations.”
The latest set of rules which came into force on April 2 makes it compulsory for aggregator companies to put a cap on surge pricing. The vehicles should also be equipped with GPS and need to maintain a log of commuters and trips made besides having yellow signboards saying ‘Taxi’.
Besides Ola, five other aggregators have applied for the licence viz. Uber, TaxiForSure, Ridz, Shreyas and Welink.
The tussle between Ola, Uber and the state government has been going on for some time.
In April this year, over a 100 taxis belonging to Ola, Uber were seized in an enforcement drive conducted by the state transport department in north Bengaluru.
The Karnataka transport department had also clearly stated in April that it will come down hard on the aggregators from May 1, if they failed to follow the latest set of rules.