Karnataka: The parent firm of Bounce, Wicked Ride, will soon receive a licence from the Karnataka transport department to provide electric bike taxi services in the state, according to a statement made on Tuesday. The tariff has been set by the state government at Rs 25 for 5 km and Rs 50 for 10 km. The Karnataka Electric Bike Taxi Scheme, 2021 will allow E-bike taxi services to be used.
However, Bounce representatives claim that when the government announced the e-bike taxi programme in 2021, the firm applied for the licence to run e-bike taxis a year earlier. The application for a licence to run e-bike taxis and e-ride-sharing services in the state was discussed by the transport department on Tuesday with Bounce and Blu Smart. Sources claim that additional car and bike rental businesses attended several meetings on licensing-related matters.
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What did the Karnataka Transport Department do?
According to a senior transport official, “We will officially provide the licence and announce the operations of e-bike taxis in the next two-three days. The e-bike taxi operators will get a licence after they comply and submit the required documents as per the state’s e-bike taxi scheme. The Karnataka State Transport Authority chairman will take a final call on the same. After which, the operators will be given time to prepare for rolling out their service.”
Also, The licence will be valid under the e-bike taxi programme for five years following the date of issuance. Among other requirements, it states that the travel distance between the origin and the destination cannot exceed 10 kilometres.
According to Bounce representatives, the firm will introduce a new kind of scooter as part of the e-bike taxi service and will also encourage women riders to benefit from the service.
Adarsha Auto and Taxi Driver’s Union President M Manjunath stated, “We vehemently oppose this decision of the state government. It is clearly against the interests of poor autorickshaw drivers. Already, apps like Rapido have destroyed the livelihoods of auto-rickshaw drivers by operating illegally. Additionally, The introduction of e-bike taxis with such low fares is going to devastate the auto drivers’ livelihood further.”
In relation
Cab aggregators were given a month by the transportation department to abide by the 2018 Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules. Tuesday saw the renewal applications for the taxi services of Ola and Uber.
The transport agency claimed that cab aggregators had not yet complied with regulations requiring the installation of panic buttons, GPS-enabled tracking, the establishment of a control centre, and the establishment of a grievance cell, among other things.
Ola and Uber have been given a month and a half to comply with the restrictions until their licences will not be renewed by the transport authority. But the disagreement over the “illegally” run auto services by them has remained a matter of pending litigation.
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