Ola will soon become the first app-based ride-hailing service in India to operate under a valid licence issued by the Karnataka state road transport authority.
This comes after two months of the implementation of the Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules 2016.
HG Kumar, Additional Commissioner of transport and state transport authority, said: “The licence will be ready in two days. They have fulfilled the conditions under the new rule and furnished details of 100 vehicles. These vehicles have city and state taxi permits. The company has also paid more than Rs 1 lakh as security deposit. But the sister-concern, TaxiForSure has not yet complied with the rules. Ola has made a separate application for licencing the latter.”
The aggregator rule mandates the companies to have a minimum strength of 100 cabs in its fleet to a maximum of 15,000 cars to obtain licence.
These vehicles must be fitted with tamper-proof GPS devices and detailed technical specifications for the devices are given in the rule.
“The main reason why Ola dilly-dallied is because it did not want a cap on surge pricing which the new rule directs. Secondly, many of their cabs had GPS devices but did not match up to the required quality and specifications. However, the 100 vehicles that were shown as fleet to us were ratified by RTOs to be fit for operation,” Kumar said.
Source: Economic Times
