Uber partially back in business

To operate indirectly through a subsidiary organisation

The Uber Technologies Inc. logo is displayed on the window of a vehicle after dropping off a passenger at Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014. Uber Technologies Inc. investors are betting the five-year-old car-booking app is more valuable than Twitter Inc. and Hertz Global Holdings Inc. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

In a desperate bid to resume operations in the national Capital region, US-based cab aggregator Uber has floated a frontal company registered here.

The company is indirectly back in business through a subsidiary organisation identified by a source as Resource Expert India Private Limited and not directly as the San Francisco-based international cab aggregation service that continues to be blacklisted and operationally banned across the country.

The Central Government imposed an operational ban on Uber and other app-based taxi services in the country after a 27-year-old MNC executive was raped aboard one of its cabs in December last year.

Following this,

The Hindu learnt, Uber representatives met with Delhi Government officials as recently as this week with a request to lift the operational ban on its services. This indicated that it was in the process of registering the new company in Delhi as a last resort.

Post registration, the company had applied for a licence under the recently-modified Radio Taxi Scheme laws to resume business indirectly on behalf of Uber. In a statement on its blog related to the development, Uber said: “We applied for a licence under the Radio Taxi Scheme to reflect our commitment to providing riders with more options for safe and reliable transportation, including the ability to request a Radio Taxi on-demand.”

The statement added that Uber continued to engage with “relevant Delhi authorities” to work towards implementation of the Kolkata model set by the Bidhannagar City Police, who have introduced new regulations for on-demand transportation technology aggregators.

“We believe this is the progressive model that ultimately puts the safety of consumers first, while recognising the power of new technologies like Uber that will make city transportation safer,” the statement added.

According to a government source, however, there could be no change in the legal status quo regarding the ban on Uber till the Model Code of Conduct was in force in the Capital due to the upcoming Assembly polls.

However, the source added that “a new operator’s licence plea” could be considered as long as it met the new legal guidelines in the amended Radio Taxi Rules of 2006 implemented on December 29. The Delhi Government Transport Department had declared major modifications to the Radio Taxi Scheme of 2006 to allow aggregators of taxis as well as entities operating through web-based applications to operate subject to conditions stipulated under the Motor Vehicles (MV) and the Information Technology (IT) Act.

These aimed at stricter background checks on drivers, added safety procedures and harsher penalties on the operators of such services.