Leading bike taxi operator Rapido on Tuesday announced that they will hire 100 women riders for their service in Bengaluru by the end of 2022 to attract women customers. It is to be noted that Rapido has been functioning in the city even though there is no clarity if bike taxis in the state are illegal or not. Other operators had stopped offering their bike taxi options in the city over the legal ambiguity. In fact, leading taxi aggregator Ola was issued a six month suspension notice for illegally running bike taxi service in 2019. The notice was withdrawn within a day with the intervention of then minister Priyank Kharge.
In this context, Rapido said that they are filing for the Bike Taxi Service Application with the State Transport Authority. “The Karnataka High Court at Bangalore in a recent case filed by a leading transport aggregator has observed that under the law, a motorcycle taxi can be used for hire on which a passenger could be carried on the pillion. Court further observed that a motorcycle taxi has been categorized as a transport vehicle by the Central Government under the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988,” the company said in a statement.
It added, “Therefore, in light of the provisions under the law, the Court allowed various aggregators, to make their respective applications to the relevant State Road Transport Authority for renting of motorcycle/taxi service for hire.”
However, the state government is yet to decide on the matter. "No two-wheeler taxi services have been given permission to ply yet," Additional Commissioner Transport Hemant Kumar said.
The introduction of bike taxis in Bengaluru has been mired in legal tangles unlike in many other Indian cities including the national capital region. The Bangalore Central Regional Transport Office (RTO) in 2019 had also filed a police complaint stating that Rapido is running the bike taxi service illegally. The Karnataka government had found them illegal as there was no provision for two wheelers to be used as commercial vehicles (yellow plate). The matter had gone to the Karnataka High Court as well.