Bengaluru: Ola licence under scanner as taxi operators and Uber protest

Bengaluru: As the court hears today the petition filed by Uber against the Transport Technology Aggregators Act 2016, the traditional taxi operators question how the transport department granted the licence to Ola when a case was going in court concerning making them the first-choice aggregator for a licence by the transport department. Besides, it is just 100 vehicles that have to conform to the rules and regulations laid down in the Act.

K. Radhakrishna Holla, President of the Bangalore Tourist Taxi Owners Association says, “The app-based Ola taxi company operating in Bangalore city has about 20, 000 vehicles ferrying about one lakh commuters. It however has only 300 permits. As per the rules and regulations they should bear the responsibility and the liabilities for all the 20,000 vehicles. But they are liable for only 300 vehicles. If any case is filed on any vehicle, the company is liable for only the permit holders.”

However, the Additional Commissioner of Transport, H G Kumar said, “We have granted them the licence because they followed all the requirements. Every segment had been monitored step by step by the RTO before granting them the licence. Again the court has not stayed the Act, they might order for a few amendments in the Act. We will act accordingly in that case. We have verified 100 vehicles of Ola for now, later after the court order is in place, in accordance with the order, we will inspect all the other vehicles as well.”

Meanwhile, Uber who have been struggling to get a licence from the Koramangala RTO have been informed that they will be made to go through re-inspection by the Electronic City RTO.