Even as the Delhi government gives the final touches to the City Taxi Scheme, 2017, and prepares to put it up for public consultation before eventually rolling it out, cab aggregators are on tenterhooks over concerns related to a possible ban on ride sharing in the Capital.
According to a Delhi government source, the scheme — a regulatory framework for the operation of cab services in the Capital — will not allow shared rides due to the “absence of legal provisions for such journeys in the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988”.
Type of permit
At the core of the issue is the difference between the conditions of contract carriage and stage carriage permits.
A contract carriage permit allows for ferrying a passenger or passengers from one point to another without stopping to pick up, or set down, more passengers.
A stage carriage permit allows the ferrying of passengers picked up, and set down, in stages at separate fares.
The cab aggregators operate with contract carriage permits.
‘Future of commute’
Faced with the possibility of having to shut down their ride sharing services, cab aggregators have come forward to highlight the important of such a facility.
“Ride sharing products like uberPOOL are the future of urban mobility, helping decongest cities by getting more people into fewer cars. With the cost of shared rides up to 50% less than travelling solo, response to uberPOOL in Delhi has been phenomenal. More than 30% of our total trips in the city are POOL trips,” Uber said in a statement.
“We will continue to engage with the Transport Department and the Delhi government as we look forward to working with them on building/developing solutions that #DecongestDelhi,” it further said.
Though Ola remained unavailable for comment, its COO Vishal Kaul, in a recent statement, had said: “Shared mobility has far reaching benefits and has the capability of tackling issues of traffic congestion and pollution in a smart and sustainable manner.”
