BENGALURU: After the bike taxi ban, state transport department officials have visited cities across India where the services are operational, to understand how they are run amid challenges. Sources maintained that the team would be submitting their findings to the high-level committee headed by Transport Secretary NV Prasad for discussion, post which a comprehensive report would be prepared, which is likely to decide the fate of bike taxis in Karnataka.
A team of two transport officials was formed and asked to visit five cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata — where bike taxis currently operate.
They were asked to look into the legal aspects, on what guidelines the taxis are operated, how the licences are issued, the fares charged and the type of vehicles permitted to be used as bike taxis. Further, they were also asked to look at the measures that the governments in these cities have taken to ensure the safety of the bike taxi users, a source said.
He added that the officials were asked to also look into the challenges in bike taxi operations, during their visits. The officials are expected to submit their reports this week to the high-level committee, post which, discussions would be held with top officials of the transport department, the source revealed.
The state transport department, from the beginning, maintained that they were not framing any policies to permit bike taxi operations. It sent its officials to other cities after the Karnataka High Court, in August, gave the state government a month to decide on the bike taxi policy.
Karnataka is the first state in India to come out with an electric bike taxi policy — ‘Karnataka Electric Bike Taxi Scheme 2021’ — which allowed operation of e-bike taxis. However, the scheme was withdrawn in 2024. While this made the operation of e-bike taxis illegal, there was no policy that legalised the operations of the regular petrol engine two-wheelers.