The Delhi Government Transport Department has thrown a spanner in the plans of two prominent cab service providers who had recently attempted to resume business and side-step a nationwide ban on web-based taxi companies.
Both US-based cab aggregator Uber and Delhi-based Ola have been asked to respond to deficiency memos by the Department after several loopholes were found in fresh applications filed by them to resume services through frontal companies.
The companies were floated by each for the purpose of registration under the modified Radio Taxi Scheme of 2006, sources told The Hindu.
“Both companies failed to provide details pertaining to their registered offices, information about the vehicles owned or aggregated by them and details of a feedback process aimed at the evaluation of their services by customers,” a source pointed out.
On January 23, Uber had announced that it was back in business through a newly-created company, Resourcexpert India Private Limited. Ola cabs had followed suit and applied for registration in the name of APRA Cabs India Pvt. Ltd.
In their applications, both Uber and Ola had admitted that the newly-registered companies would operate on their behalf, which the Department had sternly viewed as an attempt to make the ban imposed on them by the Central Government redundant.
The Centre had imposed an operational ban on San Francisco-based Uber and other app-based taxi services in the country after the rape of a 25-year-old MNC executive aboard one of its cabs in December last year. Only six companies registered as Radio Taxi vendors had been spared with the Department declaring all other service providers illegal.
On December 29, the Transport Department had declared major modifications to the Radio Taxi Scheme of 2006 to allow radio taxis to operate subject to conditions stipulated under the Motor Vehicles and the Information Technology Act. These had aimed at stricter background checks on drivers, added safety procedures and harsher penalties on the operators of such services.
